Some Mad Hope
by LostGetFound
Summary: Isabelle Lightwood has always been the trouble child of her family, but this was one thing no one saw coming: I threw the little stick on the ground and picked up another, but there was no denying it... I was pregnant. Companion fic to Begging for Mercy! (ON EXTENDED HIATUS, my sincerest apologies!)
1. Chapter 1

**AHHHHH! FINALLY, it's the long-awaited companion fic to my story Begging for Mercy! Centers on Isabelle and Simon (mostly Isabelle). I don't think you have to read the first one to understand it, but I would be immensely pleased if you did. Please. For me?**

**I own a lot of things. The rights to the Mortal Instruments series just do not happen to be among those things. **

_**Two Months Ago**_

"I'm sooo bored." I complained for what had to be the fiftieth time. Jace, Alec, and I were sitting on the curb outside of a new club waiting for the rest of our demon hunting crew to arrive. We had been waiting for what seemed like forever and I was beginning to get restless. "We should go inside. Now."

"Isabelle, we've only been waiting for five minutes," my older brother pointed out. Alec thought that he was as reasonable as I was irrational. It wasn't true, obviously.

We shared the same features, with a few minor differences. While Alec's hair fell across his forehead, mine ended near my waist. His eyes were a brilliant blue and mine a dark onyx. Though our looks marked us as siblings, our personalities definitely did not.

"I'm hungry too," I continued, ignoring my brother.

"I thought you were watching your figure." Jace reminded me. Jace's light coloring provided a contrast to our dark looks. His hair was curly and blonde and his eyes a syrupy, golden color. His tan face was often twisted into a knowing grin, and any straight girl would agree that he was sexy.

As he looked at me now, his eyes held a hint of teasing. I flipped my hair over her shoulder and frowned at him. "I don't need you to watch it for me." I retorted.

"Look Isabelle, you're attractive and all that, but I've always thought of you as more of a sister." Jace replied with a grin.

I scowled at him. "That is _not _what I meant and you know it."

I should correct my earlier statement: any straight girl would agree that Jace was sexy until he opened his mouth. After that, it was all touch and go. He had an annoying habit of spouting sexual innuendos at the worst times. Alec used to flush bright red every time he did it. Then again, Alec used to have a crush on Jace. A lot of things have changed in the year or so since we had defeated Valentine for the second time.

"Can we go _now_?" I asked again.

"No, Isabelle." Alec said again. "We have to wait until Magnus, Simon, and Clary get here." I pretended not to notice as he rolled his eyes.

"Simon's coming?" I asked, perking up suddenly. "How do you know?"

Alec gave Jace a pointed look, and the ever-sarcastic blonde informed me, "Apparently, my girlfriend has a thing for your boyfriend."

"I'm not sure either of them would appreciate your joke." I frowned at him. "And you should be really glad you have Clary, because any other girl would have to duct tape your mouth shut before she even touched you."

"Come on, Izzy." Jace smiled beguilingly. "Be nice."

"I'll be nice as soon as you stop treating my boyfriend like he's vermin." I snapped, beginning to lose patience with my crazy adopted brother.

"I can't exactly do that." Jace told me with mock-seriousness. "He used to be a rat."

"_I _have an idea." Alec interrupted, attempting to play the part of peacemaker. Jace and I had always bickered like real siblings while Alec was left to be the older, more mature one. The role had come to suit him well.

"You'd better hurry up and say it," Jace suggested with his usual sarcastic grin. "Or it won't be there very long. You know, ideas don't usually like solitary confinement."

"Haha, Jace." I retorted before Alec could respond. "You're so funny."

"Finally, something we agree on." His grin became a smirk. "Well, something besides the fact that I'm gorgeous."

"There are so many things I could say right now." I shook my head. "But my mom always told me not to argue with idiots."

"Good thing I'm not an idiot," was Jace's snappy comeback.

"If she agreed with you, you'd both be wrong." A new voice interrupted.

We all turned to see a scruffy, brown haired boy standing behind Jace's chair. His cheeks were turned up with a half-grin. It wasn't often he managed a comeback when it came to conversations with Jace. Jace just had that effect on most people.

"You're slow, Simon." I told him unnecessarily.

My boyfriend frowned at me for ruining his moment of fun. I let him pout. He had no idea that I was planning to more than make up for it before the night was over. "Yeah, well." He said. "The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."

I laughed. Jace pursed his lips and seemed to mull that over for a moment. "Did you just call yourself a mouse?"

Simon didn't deign to reply. "Well, are we going to get started?" He asked the rest of us.

"We're still waiting for Magnus and Clary." Alec, ever the responsible one, pointed out.

Simon did that one eyebrow thing that he had gotten much better at since becoming a vampire. He had gotten better at a lot of things since becoming a vampire. He had ditched his glasses, become a lot more confident, and even gotten better at, er, pursuits in the bedroom. "I take it none of you have talked to Clary recently." He looked pointedly at Jace who merely frowned in reply.

"Trouble in paradise?" I asked, raising an eyebrow of my own.

"She was still supposed to come." Our resident blonde muttered under his breath, confirming my suspicions.

"So that means we're only waiting for Magnus." I said. "And I'm sure Alec's warlock can handle himself." Exchanging a glance with Simon, I smirked. "So who's ready for a rave?"

Shooting one last glance up at the neon sign in front of the club, I made no attempt to hide my smile. The glow of the luminescent sign lit the street, throwing the world into a mix of bright avenues and shadowed boulevards. I tugged at Simon's hand and pulled him into the hazy, dimly lit room.

_MAYHEM, club privé, _the phosphorescent sign at the entrance announced. The title was fitting. The huge room was filled with a writhing mass of bodies, and music pumped through the speakers loud enough to deafen. The overall atmosphere was a mix of smoke and sex.

I loved clubs.

"Let's dance!" I called to Simon. In the chaos, I had lost hold of his hand, but he pressed close behind me.

"I don't think…" He tried to protest.

I ignored him. I had learned early with Simon that he could be persuaded to do almost anything if I was willing to try hard enough. He was a sucker for a simpering smile and pleading eyes. I had used that to my advantage on more than one occasion.

Such as persuading him to dance. Guys like Simon were uptight, uncomfortable in their own skin. They didn't know what they wanted until you showed them. He claimed that the smoky atmosphere and dimmed lights didn't attract him the way a computer screen did, but after a few shots and kisses, he always loosened up.

"Come on, Si." I pouted. The loud bass pumping through the speakers somewhere in the club called to me in a way that was unknown to Simon. I enjoyed the sound of the music, the press of the bodies, and the loose feeling that came from the place called Mayhem. "It's _fun. _You do know what fun is, right?"

Simon frowned and moved closer to me. "Forgive me if I don't get how a bunch of sweaty people dancing around getting drunk to music is fun."

Seeing that this wasn't helping, I decided to take a different approach. "Just relax, Simon." I coaxed. "Even you have to admit this is a lot better than homework." I started to sway instinctively to the rhythm of the music, pushing slightly into Simon.

"Studying isn't that bad." My nerdy boyfriend protested. Even though we had just gotten here, he already seemed to be trying to convince me to leave. "You know what they say." He added with a smile.

"What? Don't take drinks from strangers?"

"Nope. Knowledge is power and power corrupts. So study hard and be evil." Simon said. Only he could say something like that and not sound completely stupid. "Besides," he added, "I would need alcohol before I even tried to dance."

I humored him with a smile. "How about this?" I suggested, pressing seductively against him. "You go get a drink, and I'll be dancing." I traced the letters on his t-shirt with one finger as I spoke. Peeking up through my bangs, I was pleased to see him gulp nervously. "Whenever you're ready, you can come find me."

"Um, sure." Simon agreed quickly, but I had a feeling he wasn't quite sure what he was agreeing to.

"Good." I purred.

Simon turned back to the bar, probably ordering Vodka and blood (this was, after all, a more than mundane sort of place). I, on the other hand, pressed forward between bobbing dancers and let the crowd swallow me. I made it halfway across the big room before I stopped in the center of the crowd, letting the music wash over me. It didn't take long before I began to dance. Heedless of the world around me, I lost myself in the sounds.

I was brought abruptly back to the world as someone crashed into me from behind. I fell forward. "Sorry," a masculine voice mumbled, the person behind me catching me as I fell.

I felt strong arms wrap around me and I was pulled close to a male body. I sincerely hoped that this wasn't just another drunk man out for a night of fun. The arms that held me turned me to face their owner and I found myself staring into the eyes of a jaw-droppingly hot guy that looked around my own age. I suppressed a grin. Unsuspecting mundies were always a bit of fun.

"That's a nice dress." The cute mundie said, eyeing my legs. "Can I talk you out of it?"

"That depends," I said airily. Inside, I wanted to laugh. I may have been easy, but I wasn't _that _easy.

"On what?" Cute mundie asked.

"On whether you want to deal with my boyfriend." I purred. He still had his arms around my waist and his face was steadily nearing mine.

"Are you sure?" He questioned without letting me go, "because believe it or not, getting laid is still hard when you're this good-looking."

Um. Ew. I would have to be very drunk to even think about doing something of that nature with a boy as crude as this one, even if he was attractive. I decided that it was probably in my best interest to get far away from this sweaty, dark-haired boy. But I was nothing if not conniving, and I decided to play with him a little before letting him down.

I let out a low chuckle. "It must be hard with your sense of direction." I teased. "Never being able to find your way to a decent pick-up line."

I pulled slightly away from him in an attempt to extricate my body from his, but he didn't let go. I was beginning to think he was more than just sweaty. If the way he was clutching me was any indication, I figured he was a little drunk as well. Before I could really try to pull away, an angry voice cut into our conversation. "Get your hands off her!" Simon's voice rose above the pounding music.

The mundie boy pried his fingers off of me with a displeased look. "This your boyfriend?" He questioned. He looked as if he wanted to be intimidating, but was a little too tipsy to manage it. The previously attractive planes of his face were twisted into a narrow glare.

"Even if we weren't dating, I don't think she'd stoop so low as to pick up an uneducated idiot like you." Simon snapped.

"Simon, calm down." I slipped an arm around his body and leaned into him. "I was handling it."

"You looking for a fight?" The no-longer-cute mundane boy snarled, ignoring me. It was obvious who would win if the two got in a fight. Simon had a thin body, but quick and deadly vampire reflexes. The mundane, on the other hand, looked as if he spent most of his time playing video games. Or maybe that was being unfair. He looked as if he could survive a minute in a Shadowhunter practice fight. Maybe.

"No." Simon glared. "But that doesn't mean I won't fight you if you get out of hand."

I knew I should probably be protesting that I could protect myself. I thought about scolding Simon, but in reality, it was kind of hot to see him jealous. Simon wasn't the type to get into fights and only a year ago, he wouldn't have dared to confront a boy like this.

"Bring it on." The mundie boy was definitely drunk. Otherwise, he would know better than to fight a guy who looked as if he wanted to rip his head off.

Instead of throwing a punch or shoving the other guy, Simon only smirked. It was a smirk worthy of Jace, and the expression looked completely foreign on Simon's face. His lips were pulled away from his teeth, revealing his fangs. The mundie boy visibly paled, which only caused Simon's smirk to grow wider. "Are you sure you want to try me?" Simon asked testily.

The dark-haired mundane did exactly as any drunk person would do and threw a punch directly at Simon's face. Only it missed. His fist rushed past his vampire opponent's face, and he rocked forward into the stronger boy. Simon used his momentum against him and shoved him away into the crowd. The mundane crashed into a group of unsuspecting college girls who were probably just as drunk as he was.

He lay there for a minute before picking himself up from the ground. Surprisingly, he made no move to continue the fight. With one last glare, the mundie turned to walk away. He spit crudely on the ground in front of us before his shape receded into the press of people.

"_Simon_." I scolded, once he was gone. "You shouldn't pick on people who are stupider and less attractive than you. It isn't nice."

"Sorry, I got a sudden urge to hit him when I looked at his face." He shrugged, looking unapologetic. "Besides, I wouldn't have to pick on him if my _girlfriend_ didn't have a thing for PDA with random people." This was punctuated with a scowl in my direction.

"I knew I should have gone to that concert with Maia instead of coming to this place." He muttered the last just loud enough for me to hear.

My jaw clenched. Now that was a low blow. I shoved past him with a scowl worthy of my elder brother.

"Isabelle, wait!" He grabbed my arm before I could get away. "I didn't mean…" He seemed to think better of whatever he was about to say, and said instead, "I only meant that this," he gestured around. The mix of radiant spotlights and dark patches threw the room into a shadow-filled light, illuminating couples here and there. "This isn't my thing. You know that, Isabelle. Please forgive me?"

I didn't deign to respond, but I could tell that my reluctance to leave was causing Simon to perk up. Instead of acknowledging his words, I decided to dance again. Dancing, fighting, and most other physical activities were easy ways to be distracted from the swarm of issues battling it out in my head. Dancing with Simon was so much easier than thinking about my feelings for him.

"I take it you haven't seen any demons?" Simon asked awkwardly after a moment. While he had gotten better at a lot of things since becoming a vampire, he still showed no improvement when it came to dancing. He rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet in time to the music as I slinked around him like a cat. Simon's habit of dancing by bouncing up and down was doing nothing for him but wearing out his shoes.

He also seemed to be lacking when it came to conversation skills. That was something about him that would never change. Lucky for him, I found it endearing rather than annoying. In fact, that was probably the reason I forgave him. My cute, incompetent vampire boyfriend had his quirks, but they were what made him Simon.

I rolled my eyes at him and leaned forward to whisper in his ear. "Follow me," I breathed before darting away into the thrashing movement and crazy noise of the crowd.

I slid through the crush of bodies easily, moving in tandem with the thrum of the never-ending, always changing beat. I weaved lithely through the crowd. I took only a few steps, and then I glanced behind me to find that Simon was having a little more difficulty. He was jostling dancers left and right, apologizing all the while. Taking pity on him, I captured his hand in mine and tugged him along behind me.

I pulled him past twirling girls and couples who looked like they were having dance floor sex, past the DJ, and the rest of the rustling mob, and up a hidden flight of stair. As we weaved up the dim, deserted stairway, the tension between us leaked out. By the time we made it up the stairs, it had bubbled over into laughter. We burst out of the door at the top of the stairs and onto the roof of the building.

Even out here, in the obscure shadows of the night, we could feel the loud base reverberating through our bodies. The sensations were never-ending, even this far away from the madness. Someone was growing a garden on this roof, and a small loveseat was obscured from the city by a large beach umbrella.

"Man, I hate that place." Simon shuddered. He lowered himself clumsily onto the loveseat. I quickly clambered down beside him and curled up against his side.

"It's not that bad." I defended. "There's something appealing about being able to shed expectations for just a few hours and become just another person in the crowd."

"I guess that's a matter of opinion." Simon conceded. "But I hate everything about it," a small smile turned his lips up at the corners, "except for maybe you."

"Very cheesy." I informed him. I was glad that he couldn't see the flush that spread over my cheeks, because it would totally ruin my persona. Isabelle Lightwood did not blush. Ever.

Except, apparently, when Simon Lewis attempted to be charming.

Almost as if he could read my thoughts, Simon's smile spread over his whole face. "What can I say?" He joked. "I'm a hopeless romantic."

I snorted unattractively "To me, you're just hopeless."

But my actions belied my words as I leaned into him, taking comfort in his thin but strong body. We curled together on the loveseat for a long time, both content to enjoy each other's company. I, of course, was the one to start fidgeting first.

"Si?" I asked cautiously. Our fingers were curled together once again, and my head was resting on his shoulder as we gazed out over the glow of the New York City skyline. It was a perfect moment, and I didn't want to ruin it. But I had to ask.

"What you said earlier… about being with Maia… is that how you really feel?"

I thought he would flinch away and shut down. Or begin to make excuses the way he usually did when I tried to ask where we stood. But to my surprise, Simon used his free hand to cup my face and pull my head up so that our eyes met. Liquid black and dark, dark brown. Our eyes were similar in color but our personalities so different. Sometimes I wondered if we had any chance at a future at all.

"Isabelle Lightwood, you're part dainty female in cute little dresses and part sexy, demon-slaying seductress." Simon told me, squeezing my hand gently. "You're a mess of contradictions, all of them insanely attractive. Sometimes you infuriate me, but the truth is that I think I could fall in love with you, if you let me. At the end of the day, there's no one in the world I'd rather be with."

Simon looked nervous, like he was bearing his soul by telling me those words. And in a way, he was. He said he could fall in love with me. Those words and the messy emotions that came with them were dangerous. I wasn't sure if I even wanted Simon to like me, much less love me. I liked it when we had a purely physical relationship, but I had to admit that the feeling of butterflies tingling in my stomach was definitely a pleasant one. And only Simon could bring it.

With a blinding smile, I moved to press my lips against his and all my worries faded. Our kisses grew heated quickly and we sprawled across the loveseat as our bodies tangled together. We had done this before, more than once, but the effects that his body had on mine were like a drug, a narcotic that kept pulling me back.

That night was when meaningless kisses morphed into caresses and lust began to turn into love. It definitely wasn't the beginning of our romance, but it was the beginning of something bigger. Something dangerous. That night was the night that changed everything.

**When I first wrote this chapter, I couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't any good. I edited it a few times, then got my friend to edit it, but I'm still not sure. Anyway, the next chapter should be up in a week and a half or two (sorry, but I'm going on a summer trip for a week so I can't update sooner).**


	2. Chapter 2

**Random Fact: I waited forever for City of Fallen Angels to come out, but when it finally did, I couldn't make myself read it. I'm afraid that the author is going to mess up what was previously the perfect ending to the series. So keep in mind, that whatever I write in this story, I write having never read the book that tells the most about Simon and his probably-doomed-to-fail relationship with Izzy.**

_**Two Weeks Later**_

"You're adorable when you're flustered." I smiled coyly up at Simon.

"That's not funny, Isabelle." He frowned. "And I'm not flustered. I just can't concentrate with you staring at me like that."

"Like what?" I asked, licking my lips.

"Like that!" He repeated. He waved his hand in my direction and tried unsuccessfully to take a step backwards. I had my arms wrapped tightly around his waist to prevent him from going anywhere.

"I have no idea what you mean." I told him.

"Isabelle." He was beginning to sound annoyed. "Do you want me to clean this cut of yours or not?"

There was a small cut on my forehead that had just stopped dripping blood. I knew if I didn't get it cleaned up and wash my hair soon, it was going to take forever to wash out, but somehow, I couldn't bring myself to care.

Instead, I pursed my lips. "You could always clean me up later." I suggested. "Right now, I have a few other ideas. Don't you want to hear them?" Simon gave an exasperated sigh, but he let me continue anyway. He always did.

"Today," I announced regally, "I am going to teach you how to flirt."

Simon's exasperated smile quickly bunched into a flat out scowl. "I already know how to flirt. I'm a teenage guy, Isabelle. And I hate to break this to you, but you're not the first girl I've dated."

I pushed away the urge to frown and gave him another coy smile. "I may not be the first girl you've dated, but I _am_ the first girl you got past second base with." I reminded him. "Either way, your flirting skills suck."

"They do not!" He exclaimed defensively.

"Oh yeah?" I countered. "Then prove it."

"Fine." He declared. With a decisive look, he untangled my arms from around his waist and took a few steps back. I waited expectantly, but he didn't do anything. "Didn't I tell you to stop staring at me?" He challenged.

"But I couldn't help it." I simpered in reply. "Your flirting skills just absolutely had me floored."

"Haha." He said unsmilingly. "There's a reason why I'm the only one who gets to use sarcasm around here."

I was tempted to point out the reasons why he was so obviously wrong, but in the end I settled for taunting him with, "So does this mean that you give up?"

"No." He insisted. "Fine. I've got one." He took a small step forward and looked at me intently. Reaching forward, he gently picked up a strand of hair from my shoulder and played with it, twirling it around his fingers. Letting it go, he moved his hand to my cheek.

"Is this part of the flirting or are you just trying to distract me?" I said, trying not to let myself be drawn in by the feel of his soft caress against my skin.

A reluctant smile crossed his face as he admitted, "A little of both." A sudden frown marred his face as he leaned forward to peer at me. "Hey, are you wearing fake eyelashes?" He asked suddenly.

"Um, no." My eyebrows bunched together as I frowned. What kind of question was that? I had never worn fake eyelashes in my life. Okay, maybe once. Or twice. But those were times that both Alec and Jace were forbidden to speak of. Explicitly. I gave Simon a look that clearly demanded to know what was going on in that crazy little vampire head of his.

"Really?" Simon looked kind of puzzled. "Are you sure?" I nodded, still looking at him incredulously. "Okay," His face was only a few inches away from mine as he gazed closely at me. "Close your eyes so that I can see."

Skeptically, I did as he asked.

I could practically feel him leaning closer to me, and all of the sudden, it clicked. I knew exactly what he was doing, and I felt kind of stupid for falling for it. His lips met mine, and I couldn't resist the urge to smirk.

"Nice try," I whispered against his lips. "But using a cheesy pick-up line to get me to kiss you doesn't count as flirting."

"Watch your mouth, Isabelle." He whispered back. "That statement would surely count as blasphemy in Eric's universe. It might even cause his whole world to collapse." He leaned away flippantly, and I wasn't sure whether he was trying to distract me or he had seriously forgotten that he was about to kiss me only a few seconds ago.

"Who cares about Eric?" Excuse me if I was annoyed by the fact that my boyfriend would rather talk about his band mates than kiss me.

"Without him, we'd have to find a new drummer." Simon pointed out. "And then we'd have to have auditions."

"Sounds absolutely dreadful."

Simon ignored my blase tone and kept talking. "We've been trying to come up with an official band name again. What do you think of Inconsistent Smirk?"

I screwed up my face in a frown. "Why would anyone want to listen to a band with the word inconsistent in the title? And what does this have to do with anything anyway?"

"How about Metallic Death Trap? That was Matt's suggestion."

"Even _I_ could come up with a better name than that." I told him disdainfully. Really, it wasn't that hard to come up with something that didn't completely suck. "What's next? Cancer of Purge?"

"My suggestion was actually City of the Unholy." He corrected. "Because of… you know, my condition. But I doubt you could think of anything better."

I cocked an eyebrow. "Want to bet?"

"Sure." He swiped a hand through his hair, somehow making the seemingly normal gesture look adorable. "I'm game. You up for it?"

"Wait, what do I get when I win?"

Simon gave me a dubious look. "Don't you mean what do _I _get when _I _win?" He countered.

I gave him a don't-be-dense look in return. Ignoring his intended meaning, I took the words at face value. "That's what I said, isn't it?" Walking over to my bed and throwing myself onto the mattress, I laid on my stomach with my head propped up on my hands. "Are you going to answer the question or are we going to play a game of semantics here?"

"Semantics?" Simon's nerdy side seemed to perk up. "Where'd you learn a word like that?"

"Same place I learned a lot of things." I said easily. "A little here… a little there—"

"If the next thing you're going to say is that you get around, please stop there." Simon suggested.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "That is so not what I was going to say." I informed him haughtily. "I was going to say that I pick up on things. And then, I was going to remind you that you have yet to inform me of the stakes of our bet."

"Fair point." Simon admitted. "How about… if you win, I kiss you. I win, you kiss me."

I cocked an eyebrow. "How is it a bet if I get the same thing whether I win or lose?" I drawled.

"How about this then: if you win, I'll take you out to that fancy restaurant you like so much." I leaned forward and propped my chin on my hand, suddenly interested.

"I'm listening." I grinned.

Simon grinned back. Unlike my expression, I had a feeling it wasn't because he was happy. In fact, he looked kind of devious. "If I win, you have to come to one of my band practices."

I pulled a face. There was no way that I was going to sit through an hour or so of Eric being his stupid womanizing self and the rest of the band doing whatever the rest of the band did. They probably sucked. Except for Simon, of course. Because he's not an idiot. "Deal." I agreed.

This competition suddenly got a lot more interesting.

"Am I invisible?" He asked suddenly.

I looked at Simon like he was crazy, wondering where his sudden question had come from.

"No," I decided to play along just to see what he would come up with. "Why?"

Simon just smiled a wry but enigmatic smile. "So you _can_ see me?"

"Yes."

"How about tomorrow night?"

I felt a smile come unbidden to my face. Ah, another pick up line. And that one was actually cute. Cheesy of course, but cute nevertheless. "Come here." I told him.

Simon raised his eyebrows, but decided not to question it. I leaned in for what was supposed to be a quick kiss but soon turned into a steamy makeout session. By the time we came up for air, Simon probably had more of my lipstick on his face than I did.

"Hey, what do you want t…?" I started to ask, but I trailed off when I realized that he wasn't listening. One minute he was looking at me like he was ready to devour me, and the next, his attention was on something completely different. He was staring at my floor as if he were transfixed.

I clambered off the bed to go see what he was on about, and I was tempted to let out a laugh when I realized what it was.

"Simon?" I asked in an attempt to get his attention. "Can you please tell me why you're staring at my bra?" I picked the offending item up from the floor and held it in front of his face. "It's not like you haven't seen one of these before."

He reached out and grasped it by one strap. "Sorry, it's just… lavender? With hot pink polka dots?" He licked his lips in a seemingly unconscious gesture.

I smirked. "Really, Simon? If I wasn't so sure you liked me, I'd be a little worried about your fixation with the colors of my bra."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He demanded, dropping said bra on the bed.

"Nothing." I said a little too innocently. "It's just that Magnus has a certain fondness for bright colors. And you know how he's…"

"Gay?" Simon finished for me.

"Exactly."

He snorted a laugh. "I don't think you have any worries in that department." Taking me by the hand, he drew me towards the bed. "I am _very _straight. And _very _into you." So saying, he dropped onto the bed and pulled me into his lap. His arms went around me and our lips met in a way that was very, _very_ satisfying.

Right then, Simon's phone started vibrating in his pocket beneath my leg. _Not now, _I sighed. I let out a noise that was probably very close to a growl before digging the phone out of his pocket. I debated whether or not to answer it when Clary's name appeared on the screen. Finally, I snatched it up and hit the answer button.

"Hey, Clary!" I said in falsely cheerful voice.

"Give me that!" Simon snatched at the phone. I scrambled across the bed to get away from him, holding the phone just out of reach.

"This isn't Clary." A very masculine voice informed me.

"Oh. Well, what do you want?" Cell phones were very handy but annoying mundane devices. I had always kind of wanted one ever since Simon had explained them to me, but now I was rethinking that decision. If people were going to interrupt kissing sessions with pointless phone calls, what was the point of having a phone?

"Is that any way to speak to your future brother-in-law?" The person on the other side responded. There was no mistaking that tone.

"Future brother-in-law?" I repeated innocently. "Who are you and why are you marrying Jace?"

Simon's efforts to take the phone ceased as suddenly as I said those words. He stared at me as if I had gone insane. "Who is that?" He whispered loudly. "Are you sure that's Clary?" I waved him off.

Magnus let out a disdainful noise. "Cute, Isabelle."

"I thought it was." I smirked. Simon went back to reaching ineffectively for the phone. "So, why do you have Clary's phone anyway?"

"She gave it to me." Magnus replied as if it were obvious. "Told me to call you while Alec babysits her boyfriend."

"Hey!" A voice in the back ground objected loudly. "I don't need babysitting."

Magnus let out a low chuckle. "Yes, he does." He said to me. To Jace, he added, "Say hello to Isabelle, blondie."

"Isabelle!" Jace shouted through the phone. "Hello?"

"Calm down, Jace." I told him. "I'm right here."

"Isabelle?" He repeated. I heard a sudden smacking sound, almost like he was banging the phone against something. "Magnus, I don't think this thing works! Isabelle isn't coming out of it."

Apparently Magnus wasn't aware that Jace didn't know what a telephone was, much less a cell phone. Shadowhunters were old fashioned in ways that Downworlders and mundanes hadn't been for centuries. In Alicante, the capitol of Idris, we didn't even have cars.

"Sorry about that." Magnus's voice came through the earpiece.

"Was there a reason you called?" I queried. "A reason besides letting Jace harass me? Because I was a little busy before…" I wasn't in the mood to banter with any of my siblings or their significant others. I just wanted to kiss my boyfriend and forget about killing demons for a little while.

"Yes, yes." Magnus cut me off. "I'm well aware that you are with the vampire. It's his phone that Clary had me call, after all."

"Do I need to give him a message?"

"No, actually Clary wanted him to give you a message, but this works even better. Now I don't have to wait for you to get back to him. I can just…"

"The message?" I cut his long-winded speech short.

"Oh, yeah," Magnus remembered. "Maryse and Robert want to talk to you kids, Clary included."

Great. A family meeting. We had successfully avoided having one of those in a while, so I guess that meant we were due for one. Family meetings could mean tons of things. Mom and Dad could be giving us a mission, suggesting we move back to Idris (again), or (most likely) berating Jace for carelessness and telling the rest of us to stop him if he got too reckless. They did that last one every few months and never seemed to realize it was impossible to keep Jace in check.

"Is Simon included too?" I asked. Moral support in the form of my fanged boyfriend was always good.

"Guess," was Magnus's only response.

I took that as a no. "He can wait here. I'll be down in a few." I replied before hanging up.

Tossing the phone on the bed, I realized that Simon had quit trying to take it and was watching me expectantly. "_Now _do I get to know who called me?" He wanted to know.

"Maybe." I said sweetly. "Maybe not."

"Isabelle." Simon said his tone a warning.

"Why do always have to spoil my fun?" I pouted. He gave me a no nonsense look that totally ruined my efforts to sulk. "Fine. Magnus called on Clary's phone. They're downstairs… or Magnus is anyway. Apparently my parents called some sort of family meeting." Only after I finished did I notice the slightly smug expression that had come over his face. "What?" I questioned.

"All that from one look." He said in a tone I usually only heard when speaking to Jace. At my confused expression, he clarified. "Not only did you to stop pretending to sulk, but you also told me everything I wanted to know."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't be conceited. That's Jace's job."

"It's nice to see how the other half lives sometimes."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes again. Between him and Jace and their musings and strange senses of humor, one day my face was going to get stuck like that. "He snores. He eats like a pig. And he had trust issues for the first seventeen years of his life. Does that make you feel any better?"

"A little." Simon admitted with a smile.

"Look, Si." I said ignoring his statement. "I'm sorry, but I have to go. Duty calls."

"Wait, are you leaving _now_?" He asked. I could tell that he tried not to let disappointment color his tone. He could probably tell from my smug expression that he failed.

"Just when things were heating up, too." I said apologetically. I leaned forward and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you around." I said easily and with that, I left him sitting there on my bed.

No sooner had I walked down the stairs than Magnus practically attacked me. "Isabelle! Thank God you're here!" He sounded so excited that I almost expected him to tackle-hug me.

"What's wrong?" I asked curiously.

"It's this paint color!" he exclaimed. "So wrong for this room! What was Maryse thinking when she decorated?"

I blinked twice.

Sensing my confusion, Alec got up and took Magnus by the arm, dragging him towards the couch. "Ignore him," my brother told me. "He watched this show on house designing and now he thinks he's an expert on everything."

"I _am _an expert!" Magnus exclaimed.

"Forget paint colors." Jace spoke up, "We have other things to talk about." He turned to look at me with an accusatory glare. "Like where _you_ were last night, Isabelle."

"Who, me?" I said innocently.

"Yes, you." Jace lectured. "This is the second time in as many weeks you've disappeared while we were hunting. I still haven't forgiven you for last week when you abandoned us to go make nice with Simon."

"Even _I_ was there for that." Magnus put in unhelpfully.

"Firstly," I said defensively, "no one bothered to tell me that we were supposed to go demon hunting last night. Secondly, the other time was _two weeks ago_. Let it go. And lastly, you guys managed just fine by yourselves." I smirked and added, "Though I do appreciate the fact that you believe this demon fighting team can't function without me."

"While the majority of what you just said is probably untrue, I'm going to let it go." Jace informed me cockily. I swear, that boy had too much confidence for his own good. "As long as you— Wait. Is that blood in your hair?"

I held a hand to my tender forehead. Oops, I had completely forgotten about that. "Oh, yeah." I remembered. "I bumped it against the corner of a cabinet when I was looking for something earlier."

Jace's lips turned up in a half-grin. "Amazing how you can go a few rounds with a demon and end up without a scratch, but a simple cabinet gets the best of you."

"Shut up." I growled at him. We were interrupted by the sound of Clary entering the room.

"I'm here." She announced, pushing the door open. "You can start now."

"You get more like me every day." Jace grinned proudly in her direction. Clary's smile disappeared. "Come on, Clary, that's a good thing!" He insisted.

I rolled my eyes. "Only if you like conceited jerks."

"_Anyway_," Clary interjected. She somehow managed to ignore both the simpering looks Magnus was sending Alec and the glares Jace and I were passing back and forth. "I thought Maryse and Robert had something they wanted to talk to us about."

"We do," A feminine voice interrupted from the doorway. I turned to find my parents standing side by side with equally serious looks on their faces. "Now, if you could kindly leave us, Magnus, we have something we want to discuss with the rest of you."

Inwardly, I sighed. Here we go.

**Okie dokie, that's it for this chapter. Hope no one was out of character. I've been having difficulty with that lately because I haven't read the books in over a year.**

**Also, does anyone know what instruments the members of Simon's band play? Because I only know that Eric does drums.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I am absolutely horrible. Dreadful. Terrible. It's been months since I updated. And I'm not even sure if this chapter's any good. I'm soooooo sooooo sooooo sorry! My life has been a zoo lately. Busy and messy and then when I started trying to write I had no inspiration whatsoever. I FINALLY managed to write this yesterday and it's such a relief to finish! I just hope you guys like it as well.**

**Important Announcement: This story is by no means discontinued, but I can't promise regular updates. Please just stick with me?  
><strong>

Once everyone was seated and comfortable, my parents stood in front of us and began to speak.

"We are going to Alicante." Dad announced. At first, the statement was greeted with dead silence. None of us were exactly sure what the significance of the statement was and why it merited a family meeting.

"And by we you mean...?" I spoke up before the silence could get awkward.

"Your mother and I." He answered.

"That's it?" Jace asked incredulously. "You sat us down to tell us that you guys are going to Idris to meet with the Clave?"

"We're leaving tomorrow, and we don't know when we'll be back." Dad explained. "It could be anywhere from three weeks to three months." He looked like he was waiting for a reaction, but we all just stared at him. He and mom had gone on long trips for the Clave before. It wasn't as if this was anything new.

"This is the first time Hodge won't be here to take care of you." Mom said in an attempt to justify the meeting.

Jace visibly bristled at the name. "Somehow, I think we'll survive without him." He replied sardonically. Out of all of us, Jace had been hit the hardest by Hodge's betrayal. To him, Hodge had turned out to be just another deadbeat excuse for a protector, like Valentine before him.

"While we're gone, we are leaving Alec in charge." Mom continued as if Jace hadn't spoken.

_That _got a reaction. "Why does Alec always get to be in charge?" I complained. Clary rolled her eyes, and Jace still looked sort of ticked off.

"Because on top of being the oldest, Alec is also the only one we can trust not to run off in recklessly in search of danger." Dad pointed out.

"Not true!" I protested.

The entire room turned to look at me. Even Jace had one dubious eyebrow cocked.

"Okay, maybe it's a little true. But still." I huffed. "I think I deserve a chance to be in charge for once."

"I'd rather Magnus be in charge." Jace muttered just loud enough for me to hear. "He might try to give us all makeovers, but there's no telling what Izzy would do. For all we know, she could burn the whole Institute down trying to cook." Clary elbowed him in the ribs and he let out a grunt.

"What?" The blonde shrugged innocently. "It's true."

I glared at him.

"See," Dad interjected. "This is why neither of you are in charge." I muttered something about stupid blondes and Jace grinned.

"What was that, Isabelle?" He taunted. I glared again and chunked the nearest couch pillow at his face.

Jace, being Jace, caught it effortlessly. "Love you too, Izzy." He grinned.

I swear. One day, that boy was going to piss the wrong person off and wind up in trouble. But then again, trouble and Jace were old friends.

A few days later, mom and dad were long gone and the rest of us had settled into an easy routine. Wake up as late as possible (well, that was mostly Jace and Clary). Ignore the school work mom and dad left. Look for new demonic signs around the city. And, my personal favorite, spend our nights hunting demons.

Alec, Magnus, and I were sitting in the kitchen one morning. Simon had been with me yesterday afternoon, but who knew where he was now. So had Clary and Jace, but they had disappeared into Jace's room sometime last night to… yeah, I didn't really want to think about that.

"Wonder what they're doing in there," Alec said pensively.

"Magnus and I exchanged knowing looks. "Oh, Alec," The warlock sighed, "my poor, naïve, innocent Alec. Is it really that hard to guess?"

A dark flush crept over my brother's face and Magnus laughed. "We can't all be dirty minded like you, Magnus." Alec muttered, his face still bright red.

"It's because he's such a stud." I joked.

Alec gave me a pointed look. "You know you can't spell stud without STD," He remarked dryly.

"Well, you'd better hope Magnus doesn't have one of those or you might be in trouble, Allie-boo," I teased, stealing Magnus' nickname for Alec.

Alec glared. "I just can't win with you guys." He complained.

"If we're talking about winning," Jace, arrogant as ever, interrupted from the doorway, "then my name needs to be mentioned."

There was a mundie saying that applied to this situation. How did it go? Speak of the devil and he shall appear or something like that. Unsurprisingly, Clary wasn't far behind him. They were, to use another mundie expression, thick as thieves.

"As long as there is a "doesn't" between those two words." His girlfriend snorted from behind him.

"I'm hurt." Jace claimed. "I thought that you of all people knew me well enough t know that I never make mistakes. Being perfect, I'm above that sort of thing."

"Yeah?" Clary baited him with an innocent smile. "Well how about that time when you… umph!" Jace's hand shot out to cover her mouth and pulled back just as quickly when Clary bit the offending hand. I covered a snicker with a cough.

"What's your problem woman?" Jace demanded.

"Bite me." Clary snapped in return.

"Looks like you beat him to it," I couldn't help but point out.

"Meow." Magnus mocked as Clary pushed past Jace and stepped into the room. "Kitty has claws."

"And teeth." Jace added with a scowl. He shook his hand out and inspected it thoroughly as if looking for a wound. "Definitely teeth."

"Only when she hasn't had her morning coffee," Clary said sweetly and I smirked. It looked like some of my sauciness was beginning to rub off on her. I viewed it as a good thing. Mixed with her already snarky nature, it could lead to many amusing things. Like the deflation of Jace's overly large ego. Though I doubted even a giant needle could pop that bubble.

Clary went to the counter where the coffee normally was to pour herself a cup. Finding an empty space instead of her nice, hot coffee, she let out a screech. "Where's my coffee?"

Alec shifted uncomfortably in his chair and Magnus suddenly seemed to find his nails a little too interesting. Jace alone remained unconcerned. Insolent bast-

"Someone say something!" Clary yelled, cutting off my train of thought. She picked up a discarded spatula and pointed it at each of us in turn. Ooh, scary.

"Put down the spatula, Clary." I suggested. "And Jace will tell you exactly what happened."

"What? Me?" A certain golden haired boy objected loudly. "Why me?"

I resisted the urge to snicker again. My "brother" could handle demons, vampires, and the entire supernatural world with a panache that left them either trembling or dead. And yet in the face of his girlfriend's wrath, he was helpless. The sight of Clary wielding a spatula only made the scene more comical. Ah, the joys of being an instigator.

"You're the one who…" I trailed off with a sudden devious smile. You know what they say about payback…

"It's Jace's fault." I informed Clary.

The red haired girl advanced on her boyfriend, spatula poised to strike, an evil glint in her eye. "Jace." She said calmly. (A little too calmly.) "What did you do?"

"Well… there might have been an accident." Jace offered up. "Involving the coffee maker and a knife."

"Keep going."

"The coffee maker didn't survive." He said apologetically. He visibly brightened as a new thought occurred to him. "But on the positive side, we now know that I can hit a moving target at thirty feet."

Clary glared at him. "Great. That's absolutely wonderful," she snipped. She put down the spatula, belatedly realizing that Magnus and I were failing to stifle our laughter.

"Glad my suffering amuses you." She dropped into the seat beside Magnus at the table. "I aim to please." She remarked dryly. "And if not to please then at least mildly entertain."

"That's exactly…" Jace began, but I didn't hear the rest of his statement because just then the phone rang.

We had only had a phone at the Institute for a couple of months. It was a new invention that Simon and Clary had introduced to the rest of us a little while ago. The device itself completely baffled Jace, but the rest of us had quickly gotten used to it. Raised in Idris instead of the modern world of New York, each new invention was a bit harder for him to comprehend. The only ones more confused than Jace were my parents who jumped into action any time the thing so much as rang.

Excusing myself, I checked the number. I didn't recognize it but I answered it anyway.

"Isabelle Lightwood!" A voice almost as cocky and charming as Jace's rang out.

Ugh. I puked a little in my mouth.

It was a voice I would recognize anywhere and one that I wasn't especially pleased to hear. "Ross." I ground out. "It's been a long time." It was no wonder I didn't recognize the number. I hadn't spoken to Ross since our break up months ago.

"Not really." He replied easily. Ross Merric was devious, handsome, and easy (yes, I do mean it _that _way). He was also a shapeshifter, which was the original reason I had been attracted to him. Gorgeous and out for some fun with no strings attached, he was exactly my type. You could say we had a bit of a history. You could also say we had a bit of a falling out. Either way, things hadn't ended well.

So why was he calling me now?

"What do you want?" I demanded.

"Is that any way to greet an old flame?" He asked. I could almost hear the grin in his voice.

"First of all, there was no flame. There weren't even very many sparks." I informed him. "And second, you sound like Jace."

"I sound like your brother?" Ross chided. "You still know how to kill the mood, Iz."

"Anything to get rid of you," I told him pointedly. "Speaking of, was there an actual reason you called? One besides the fact that you enjoy harassing me?" I seemed to be asking that question annoyingly often lately.

"Of course." Ross said in that irritatingly charming voice of his. "And you'll thank me for it."

"I'm waiting."

"Vampires." The word made me jump, my mind automatically rushing to my "boyfriend" who just so happened to be one.

"What about them?" I asked carefully.

"A coven is fighting. And it's a nasty fight; territories, blood, guts, the works. I figured your guys would like to handle it."

"Vampires fight all the time." I pointed out. "But not at this time of day."

It was like ten. In the morning. Vampires couldn't exactly wander around during the day like normal human beings (a rule to which Simon was the sole living exception) without burning up. So how exactly were they fighting? And why so early in the morning?

"They're inside." Ross said as if I should have realized it sooner. "The fight is taking place in that abandoned warehouse off of the corner of Eight Avenue and Rosedale, and they've been fighting for a while now. A friend of mine got involved. He suggested that this was a job for the Shadowhunters, which is saying something because you know how Downworlders hate you guys." I resisted the urge to point out that he was a Downworlder.

Instead, I asked, "Why does this concern us?"

"You know that friend I mentioned?" I nodded, belatedly remembering that he couldn't see me. "Well, he mentioned a guy named Raphael. Thought it might interest you."

_That _got my attention. Lately, where Raphael was mentioned, Simon was sure to follow. Without waiting to hear more, I hung up.

I turned around and stopped abruptly. Four faces with expressions varying from disgust to curiosity stared back at me. "_Ross_?" Alec asked (he was, understandably, the disgusted one). "Why were you talking to _him_?"

Sighing dramatically, I realized I had no choice but to explain.

And that was how, twenty minutes later, Jace, Alec, Clary, and I found ourselves standing on a street corner waiting for some sort of disturbance.

"What's the deal with this Ross guy?" Clary whispered when Alec and Jace were distracted. They were standing feet in front of us, completely absorbed in comparing the merits of fighting with a knife over various other weapons. _Boys_, I sighed again.

"It's a long story." I divulged. One that I wasn't feeling particularly inclined to tell. Sharing, after all, wasn't my thing. Especially when it came to stuff like feelings.

"You can trust me." Clary said. I don't think she meant for me to hear the hurt in her voice, but it was obvious that she thought that I didn't trust her enough to tell her.

So I gave her what I was willing to share. "He was actually a lot like Jace. Cocky, charming, arrogant."

"Jace is also sweet and clever." Clary reminded me.

"Yeah," I conceded. "But Ross wasn't particularly sweet. Anyway, long story short: things didn't work out. I told him to go do something anatomically impossible, walked away, and never spoke to him again. End of story."

"Until now."

"Yes," I agreed. "Until now."

"So how do we know we can trust him?" She inquired curiously. "How do we know he didn't just make this whole thing up to send us on a wild goose chase or something like that?"

"We don't." I admitted. "But he mentioned a vampire fight and Raphael and wherever Raphael is, that means…"

"Simon." She finished for me.

"Exactly."

The corner of her mouth turned up in a grin that was vaguely reminiscent of one that would appear on Jace's face. "This just got a lot more interesting."

"Hey!" Jace interrupted from a few yards ahead. "This is that place."

We all drew our weapons and poised to strike. "You ready?" Clary whispered.

"As I'll ever be." I answerd.

"Good enough for me." Jace grinned. Without another word, he kicked down the door and burst inside.

**So was it wonderful? Horrible? Is it interesting? Am I skipping around too much? Any sort of response would be encouraging and will prompt me to update faster.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Special thanks go out to KissingFullMoon89, jennylightwood, duchess jenifer, and broken-hearted wings, my lovely reviewers for the last chapter!** **I apologize in advance if this chapter is a little bit confusing. I kinda made it up as I went along and decided on what was happening about halfway through. But then, that's how I normally write so it should be fine. :)**

The door let out a loud, grinding shriek as it crashed open, and the sudden noise reverberated around the room. So much for the element of surprise, I thought wryly. But, as it turned out, there was no one on the other side to surprise. The big open room was silent, deserted, and obviously a storeroom of some sort. Boxes filled it from top to bottom with narrow walkways between. The room was so deathly silent that at first, I thought Ross had tricked us.

Then, I heard it.

A sudden shout echoed from somewhere in the building, bringing my defenses up. But the noise didn't stop there. It was like nothing I'd ever heard. And I had fought demons and listened to vampires and werewolves tear each other apart. Shrieks and screeches and low hateful screams echoed from a room on the other side of the building.

I could tell from the way that the others stilled around me that they could hear it too. Clary and I exchanged glances. I could tell from her expression that she was rethinking this whole thing. But Jace, being Jace, wasted no time moving across the room.

His body looked tense, almost too tense, as if he was barely holding back. He looked practically vibrant with energy, as if he could take on the whole world with a single blade. Knowing Jace, he would probably try. He stalked forward like a cat, moving easily from a crouch to his feet and back again, never making a single noise. Clary, visibly steeling herself for what was to come, was right behind him. I moved forward after her, leaving Alec to watch our backs as always.

The place was creepy to say the least. All the windows were boarded up and it had a dilapidated look from both inside and outside. It looked as if there had once been carpeting over the floor of the hallway, but it was torn and faded and the concrete beneath was visible. It had none of the faded elegance that Simon said Raphael always used to describe Hotel Dumont, the home of the Night Children in New York.

As we neared the room that the noise was coming from, it grew louder and louder until we reached the end of the corridor from which the sound was emanating. I took another step forward and almost tripped over my high heeled boots. My stomach rolled and my head ached and the world seemed to spin around me. It was all I could do to keep from falling flat on my butt. Alec caught me before I could trip over my own feet again.

Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the feeling was gone and I felt like I could breathe again. Alec's blue eyes settled on my dark ones and he gazed searchingly at me.

"I'm fine." I assured him, pulling away. But he looked as if he didn't believe me.

And honestly, I didn't blame him.

There were a few unalterable rules in life. One was that Shadowhunters fought and killed demons. Another that Magnus was never going to give up on changing Alec's wardrobe. And the one that applied here: Isabelle Lightwood never tripped. Ever. Not even when I was drunk. It just didn't happen.

Needless to say, Alec and I were both more than a little shocked. But we didn't have time to rewrite the rules of the universe at the moment. We were kind of busy saving it.

Luckily, Jace and Clary hadn't noticed a thing. They were crouched on either side of the door at the end of the hall, ready to kick it in at any moment. The shouting was almost deafening from here, and it was obvious that there were more than a few vampires on the other side of the door.

Before any of us could make a move, the door was thrown open and two vampires rushed out. In the time it took them to leave, I caught sight of the chaos in the room. From that little view, I counted ten of them grappling and tearing at each other violently. It made me think twice about coming in so unprepared. Then, the door was shut and my attention was once again focused on the two vampires in front of me.

Both caught sight of me and their eyes went wide. For two completely different reasons. One opened his mouth to warn the others.

"Not so fast," I hissed, catching him by the throat and slamming him against the wall.

The other just stood there and as recognition dawned, I realized why. Standing in front of me was none other than my very own vampire.

Simon.

"Well, well," Jace said and if there wasn't so much noise from the other side of the door, I was sure he would get us caught. "Fancy meeting you here."

For a minute, Simon looked like a "deer in the headlights" to use one of my many recently acquired mundie colloquialisms. Not that I'd ever seen an actual deer. But I had heard about them.

Simon's features settled into an unconcerned mask, but not before I saw the look in his eyes. "I'm a vampire." He told Jace sardonically. "Or had you forgotten for two seconds? I have every right to be here."

"Well, if this operation is perfectly legal, then I assume you won't mind telling us what's going on."

"Jace…" Clary warned. Jace sounded like he was about to interrogate someone, never stopping to realize that this was _Simon _he was talking to. His girlfriend's best friend. His "sister's" boyfriend.

"I—" Simon started.

But our operation was interrupted yet again as the guy whose windpipe my hand was crushing lashed out suddenly. His feet tangled in mine and I went down. Hard. He let out a shout to wake the dead (not that anyone could hear him over the din) and attacked Clary. Jace moved forward too and thrust the vampire backwards before he could so much as lay a hand on Clary.

The best word for what happened next was this: chaos. Jace and Clary quickly subdued the annoying vampire, but not before the door was thrown open once again and other vamps piled out. In the middle of the melee, I felt myself being pulled to my feet and I found myself face to face with Simon.

He smiled crookedly. "Having a good day?"

"The best." I replied, sounding completely unenthused. "And I'm sure it's only going to get better now that you're here."

"That's the spirit." He clapped me on the back.

Around us, vampires were attacking each other. They were attacking our friends. And he was willing to stand here and exchange pleasantries. I really needed to get better taste in guys.

The scene around us was nothing if not chaotic. Jace was holding his own against two vampires in the corner, fighting back to back with Clary. Alec was staving off a vicious looking brunette while the rest of the vampires continued to fight amongst themselves. Most of them didn't even notice that there were Shadowhunters in their midst. I heard a Spanish expletive and knew that Raphael was somewhere in the room. One particularly beautiful vampire with golden curls and green eyes stood in the middle of the fighting, her head thrown back in a laugh and a wicked smile over her face. No one challenged her or moved to engage her in a fight.

"Camille Belcourt." Simon had to shout so that I could hear him. He motioned to the mess surrounding us. "She's the cause of t—"

He was cut off once again as a vampire lunged forward at the two of us. His leering face was deathly white, his fangs pointed and bared and covered with blood from a fallen enemy. I drew my whip back instinctively, but Simon jumped in front of me and warned the vampire off with a hiss.

Without giving me a second to think, he tangled his fingers with mine and dragged me off away from the bloody battle. We had to step over at least two bodies and dodge a few more sets of bared-fangs to get away from the action. Simon dragged me through the confusion of hallways and writhing bodies until we were safely alone.

As soon as we stopped, I jerked my hand out of his. "Simon! We should be helping Clary, Jace, and Alec, not hiding from fighting." Hiding while there was a battle going on went against everything I was raised to do.

"Relax, Izzy." Simon sighed. "The fighting will keep. And if those vampires can kill Jace, then they've done something that I would bet an entire army can't." He slumped against the wall and for the first time I realized what bad shape he was in. My fingers that had been clasped with his were coated in blood. And the blood was decidedly not mine.

"It's not Jace I'm worried about." I told him. But I didn't move to leave him. He looked so lost sitting there with his knees curled against his chest and his back propped against the wall. Simon needed me more than Alec or Clary did right now, and I was going to stick with him.

"Give me your hand." I told him abruptly, pushing away the surge of emotions that demanded I hold him tight and never let go. "You're bleeding."

"Only a flesh wound." He said dismissively.

"Says the boy who insists that I kiss his finger to make his paper cuts feel better." I pointed out dryly.

Simon smirked, a little of the tiredness leaving his face. "I just like letting you kiss me." Just like that, the tiredness was back. "I've got much bigger worries than paper cuts now."

"Your problems will keep." I echoed. "Don't make me tie you down, Simon. Let me see your hand." He offered it up without complaint, but I could tell from his smile that another comment was on the tip of his tongue.

"Save it." I ordered, eyeing his hand. He was right about one thing. It was only a flesh wound, and even though he was bleeding like a stuck pig, he was in no danger of bleeding out anytime soon. I fished a bandage out of my boot (boots and bras were a shadowhunter girl's best friend when it came to storage) and wiped off as much blood as I could with my shirt.

"This would be so much easier if you were a shadowhunter." I announced. If he was one of my kind, I could just draw a quick rune or two and be done. Instead, I was getting blood all over my new shirt. Realizing that there was no hope for my Marc Jacobs designer black top, I added, "I hope you're grateful for this. Because your nasty blood isn't coming out of my shirt anytime soon."

Simon's face had gone white as I applied pressure to his injured hand. "I'd be a bit more grateful if you'd tie it a little looser." He ground out. "My fingers have gotten used to blood."

"There." I loosened it a little and Simon only flexed his hand and grimaced. "Now, are you going to tell what's going on," I asked. "Or do I really have to tie you up?"

Simon pretended to think about it for a minute before he decided, "The kinky stuff can wait." Still grimacing, he added, "It's Camille."

"The crazy blonde vamp?"

"That's the one." He agreed, moving over so that I could sit down beside him. "She's the leader of the local vampire clan."

"Wait," I frowned. "I thought Raphael…"

Simon shook his head. "Raphael was filling in for her while she was in Idris. They got in a fight and Raphael tried to take over. A lot of the vampires don't like Camille, haven't seen her in decades, or have been recruited since she disappeared to Idris years ago. So when Raphael tried to incite a rebellion…"

"He had plenty of willing followers." I finished for him.

"Exactly." Simon agreed.

"And you're one of them?" I asked curiously. Last time I checked, Simon's relationship with Raphael was more out of necessity than loyalty.

He shrugged unconcernedly. "What can I say? He grows on you."

I cocked an eyebrow. "So does ringworm." I pointed out, drawing a reluctant laugh. "So that's it?" I pushed. "That's the whole reason for this bloody battle? It's just a turf war?"

"Well, that's part of it. But the fighting isn't just about who should be leader. Most vampires have slightly skewed moral compasses. Camille has been around a lot longer than most, so hers is a little more skewed than others. She's done some things that Raphael found… distasteful."

I frowned at him. Call me crazy, but I had a feeling that I was getting the extremely edited version of this story. I wasn't about to start a fight over it though. There were more important matters to cover. "So we have no part in this fight?" I demanded. Trust Ross to lead us to a legitimate fight knowing it was by no means under our jurisdiction. "Simon! According to the Accords, we're supposed to be at peace with the vampires. Why did you let me leave Jace, Clary, and Alec back there with those… creatures?"

Simon's expression darkened. "First of all, I'm one of those _creatures_. And second, I had no idea why you were here. Imagine my surprise when I escape a bloody vampire fight only to run into my best friend, my girlfriend, and her brothers."

"We were here for you!" I shouted. "Clary, Alec, and even Jace came with me because we were worried about _you_, Simon!"

Simon rubbed a tired hand over his face and got to his feet. He turned around and held out a hand to me. "Well, don't just sit there. Come on."

"We're going back for them?" I asked.

"Either that or we're going to jump into the middle of a civil war full of Night Children." He said sarcastically. "Actually, now that I think about it we're doing both."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're amazing?" I asked, feeling particularly gracious.

"You certainly haven't." He replied, just loud enough for me to wonder whether or not he meant for me to hear. I chose to be the better person and ignore him. Thoughts of my earlier nausea and fall were gone from my mind as I looked forward to kicking some vampire butt.

We hurried down the dimly lit corridors until we reached the fighting. The sight was even worse this time. More bodies littered the ground. I was taken aback for a moment. Vampires were pretty hard to kill. There were about ten bodies scattered across the floor, and more were injured. Camille, still with a crazy look in her eye, was now taking part, facing off against Raphael. It actually looked like a pretty fair fight, the slight but muscular boy of no more than nineteen with his bloody teeth bared against the thin, vicious woman with an expression bordering on evil.

Clary, Jace, and Alec were all there, each facing off against a single vampire. I rushed forward to help my brother, Simon right behind me. Out of nowhere, a chalk-white face and razor sharp fangs appeared before me as a vampire swooped down to attack.

"Isabelle!" Simon shouted in warning. My whip swung back and snapped forward just a second too late. In the time it had taken me to reach back, the vampire had started to close the gap between us. My whip struck the air less than a foot behind him.

He looked no more than thirteen, only a kid. _Like Max. _The thought came unbidden to my mind. But he had to be dangerous, I reasoned with myself. He was getting closer fast and I knew I had to do something. I felt a sudden tug at my waist as Simon made the decision for me. He snatched the faintly glowing Seraph blade from my belt and threw it across the room.

I heard a dull thud as the blade struck home.

The child/vampire collapsed dead on the floor.

I didn't have time to think about his death. I rushed towards Alec, stabbing the vampire he was fighting through the back. The blade didn't go through its heart, so it wasn't dead, but these vampires weren't our enemies at the moment. After all, a turf war wasn't exactly illegal, but killing these vampires went against the Accords.

"Alec!" I shouted. "We have to get out of here! Ross lied. We're violating the Covenant by fighting here!"

Alec's weapon dropped to his side and he let out a loud curse. He muttered something that I couldn't make out over the noise of the battle. I looked around the room to see Simon telling Clary the same thing. Meeting my eyes, Simon nodded towards the door, telling me without words that it was time to go.

"Go tell Jace!" I shouted to Alec, following the others to the door.

By the time the three of us made it to the door, Jace and Alec were only a few steps behind. Jace kicked a body out of the way as he caught up with us, "Bloody vampire." He snarled.

Simon's eyes darkened again and I knew he was going to snap at Jace if I didn't intervene. "How about we just focus on getting out of here alive? Then, you can insult innocent people to your heart's content."

Jace's sharp eyes moved from me to Simon and back again, understanding why I had suddenly snapped at him. "Didn't realize you cared so much." He said. "I'll try to limit myself on the racial slurs next time, dear sister." I wasn't sure if he was serious or if he was just being nasty. Knowing Jace, it was probably the latter.

Either way, it didn't matter. We were out. As Alec kicked the door open (What was it with boys? Did they not know that the door knob worked just fine?) we were met with the cool New York night air. It was a welcome relief from the musty smell of the warehouse.

Or so I thought at first. Just like that, the nausea was back. Only this time, it was worse. I stopped in the middle of the street and emptied my lunch all over the road and my newest black suede boots. The taste was disgusting and the feeling of throwing up was even worse. To make it worse, I looked up to find the entire group staring at me.

Great. I was now down one silk top, one pair of seven hundred dollar boots, and my dignity. And that was just the beginning of the list. Could this day get any worse?

**Aww, poor Izzy! Her day's just getting worse and worse. Just think about how bad it's going to be when she finds out she's pregnant in approximately two chapters (**_**hint hint**_**)! So now you guys wanna review and tell me how much you're looking forward to that, right? …Or do I have to beg? **


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey, everyone! Thanks so much for the reviews and support on the last chapter. Glad to know people are still reading. **

**Sorry, I know it's a week late, but I wrote an entire chapter and then decided that I didn't like where the story was going so I basically rewrote the entire thing in two days. And it's almost four thousand words, so that's gotta count for something, right?**

**Isabelle**

Apparently, it could. When we got back to the Institute, I was unwillingly escorted to the infirmary. Despite my vehement protests that I was perfectly fine, Alec insisted that Magnus (who had appeared on the doorstep almost as soon as we home) needed to check me out just to make sure.

"I'm sure that Magnus would much rather check _you_ out, Alec." I pointed out. "Besides, I'm fine."

Alec gave me a look, and I glared at him in return.

"She has a point." Magnus agreed from across the room. Alec turned to give him the same look he had given me. "Fine, fine." His beloved warlock conceded. "But just remember, I don't have a medical degree. I never went to school for this sort of thing."

"Did they even have classes for that sort of thing when you were in school?" I scoffed.

"Probably." The sparkly warlock said, running a well-manicured hand over my discarded whip absently. "But those who taught the classes knew nothing of magic. They were incompetent fools, the lot of them." Magnus sniffed haughtily. "I, on the other hand, know a number of tasteful spells to be used on any occasion."

"Tasteful, huh?" I grinned questioningly.

"Would you rather I use another word?" He queried. "How about dangerous? I know a few dangerous spells as well, Isabelle. If you're not nice, I might slip up and use one of those instead."

"You'd never hurt me." I pointed out. "Alec would never forgive you."

"Who says Alec has to know?" Magnus answered glibly.

"Well, if I didn't know before, I'd know it now." The boy in question spoke up. Sending twin glares at me and his boyfriend, he added, "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk about me like I'm not in the room."

"Whatever you say, Allie, dear," Magnus patted his arms consolingly. Recognizing the gesture as placating, Alec scowled.

"How many times do I have to tell you guys, _I'm fine_!" I insisted.

They both ignored me. Without paying any regard to my personal space, Magnus set about inspecting me. Unlike a mundie doctor, he basically did a quick scan of my body then started muttering spells. It sounded like a bunch of gibberish to me. Or maybe it was Latin. I could never tell the difference.

"There!" He announced after about fifteen minutes of poking, prodding, and murmuring. "That spell should tell us exactly what's wrong. And it's not at all dangerous." Almost as an afterthought, he murmured, "I think."

I looked from Alec to him and back again. "You don't seem very concerned for my health." I said to the darker of the two.

Alec only shrugged. "Believe or not, I actually do have faith in Magnus. I trust him to help you."

Magnus reached over and ruffled his hair affectionately. "Thanks, Allie." Turning to me, he added, "Your lack of faith is wounding, Isabelle. It breaks my heart, it really does."

"Shut up, will you?" I told him. "You have a job to do."

"Oh, I'm sorry your highness." Magnus's grin took on a sly quality. "Should I go get your coffee and tea now?"

I pretended to ponder the question for a moment before deciding, "Tea, please."

Magnus snapped his fingers at Alec. "Tea for the queen," He ordered imperiously. "I can't do it because such a menial labor is beneath me."

"But not beneath me, I suppose?" Alec asked wryly.

"Exactly." Magnus grinned. "You're even dressed for the occasion." He motioned to Alec's dour brown and black clothing, and Alec's smile flattened into a scowl. This, of course, prompted Magnus to begin consoling him. Somehow, they ended up flirting as we waited for the results of the test. _Flirting!_ I didn't even know that Alec knew how to do that!

Then, Magnus discovered some leftover blood on Alec's arms and began to coo over my brother and nurse his "dreadful" (Magnus's word, not mine) injury. I made a face. The nick on Alec's arm was an inch long at the most and had been fixed thirty minutes ago by my stele, but I had to admit, the tiny bit repressed teenage girl inside of me thought that the two of them were adorable together.

That part of me was jealous of what they had. The way they were looking at each other spoke volumes, and the tension between them was tangible. You could tell by the way they moved around each other that they had something special.

But still, this was my _brother _we were talking about. That automatically made the situation uncomfortable.

"Gross," I groaned. "It's like being around Jace and Clary."

"I resent that!" Magnus exclaimed. Alec flushed red, seemingly realizing for the first time that I was in the room too. Yeah, Alec, really feeling the love here.

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and winced as his muscles protested. Just like that, Magnus was immediately on his feet and at my brother's side. He peered worriedly at my brother as if Alec might have gotten seriously injured and only just now noticed. In the heat of the battle it's easy to ignore injuries, but as soon as the fight is over, cuts and gashes and bruises all cry out painfully. Alec's problem was most likely just bruises form a fight well fought. And yet, the look on the warlock's face was loving, worried, and eager to help.

"Are you okay?" Magnus asked anxiously.

"Fine." Alec said through gritted teeth. "Just sore. I have a few new bruises to add to my collection."

Magnus nodded in understanding and moved closer to Alec to gently run his fingers over his face and shoulders. As if Magnus's touch was magic, Alec relaxed against him, the tension vanishing from his body. I felt like I was intruding on a moment meant only for the two of them.

"You're amazing, Magnus." Alec sighed happily. Our resident warlock began to nuzzle his ear in a sickeningly-sweet display of affection. I repeat: gross.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. "Hey, love birds?" I called. "I'm still here."

Neither of them paid me any attention. I don't even think they heard me. They were too wrapped up in each other to notice anything else.

"Hellllloooo?" I tried again. "Anyone home?"

Nothing.

I was sitting in the stupid infirmary bed, wanting nothing more than to be able to leave. And my "doctor" was too busy playing kissy-face with my brother to do anything helpful. Both were smiling idiotically, and their mouths were steadily nearing each other.

"Simon moved to Forks, Washington to go to vampire training school." I announced flippantly. "But he's upset because they put him on probation. According to the leader, Carlisle, it's because he doesn't sparkle."

Again, nothing. They were really kissing now, and it had passed from the uncomfortable stage to just plain awkward. So, I kept talking.

"Oh, and Luke and Clary's mom eloped. They're going to be acrobats in the circus. I told them that I fully support their decision, but I don't think Clary would approve."

The lovers continued kissing obliviously. Grinning, I added, "I was thinking of giving them Chairman Meow as a wedding gift."

In seconds, Magnus detached his face from Alec's and turned to look at me. "Did you say Chairman Meow?" He asked hopefully.

"Um, yea—"

"Have you seen him?" He interrupted. "Because I'm worried that he ran away again."

Before I could come up with an answer, I was cut off once again. A sudden pain radiated through my stomach and traveled up my body until I could feel it in my throat. I broke off into a loud, choking cough, wincing at the pain in my throat.

"Ah, I think the spell has done its work." Magnus declared. He took a celebratory bow and blew kisses to an imaginary audience. "See? You're just fine." Turning to Alec, he added, "I've used this spell before. You remember that bird that hurt its wing?" He smiled innocently at Alec like he was waiting for some sort of reaction. My brother took a moment to catch on.

"Magnus!" he shouted suddenly. His eyes went wide with alarm as I broke into another cough. "That bird died!"

"Oh." The warlock bit his lip sheepishly. "Oops?"

"Magnus!"

Magnus let out a low chuckle. "Calm down, Alec. I'm only joking. Your sister will be fine."

"I swear, Magnus, if you hurt my sister, I'm going to be furious!" Aw. He did care.

"No kisses for a week?" Magnus asked, looking quite scared. Well, as scared as Magnus ever looked anyway.

"Worse." Alec crossed his arms over his chest and sulked petulantly.

Normally, Magnus would have given Alec a sweet smile and teased him out of his mood. But he didn't even seem to notice Alec. In fact, as he placed his hand on my stomach and muttered a few more words in Latin, he began to look alarmed.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

For the second time that day, Magnus didn't seem to hear me. Frowning confusedly, he made a strange motion and muttered something unintelligible.

"Magnus?" I asked, starting to get worried. "What's wrong?"

Magnus's cat-like eyes locked on mine and I felt my heart skip a beat when I saw the look in them. He looked… confused. One thing that Magnus, Jace, and I all had in common was that we didn't let on when we were unsure. We stood our ground and bluffed our way out of things. So, the next three words that Magnus said left me worried.

He opened his mouth, met my eyes, and admitted, "I don't know."

**Clary**

"What are you doing?"

The voice startled me out of my seat. I was on my feet, knife drawn, halfway to a crouch by the time my eyes landed on the speaker. It was, unsurprisingly, Jace. He leaned against the wall beside my window, arms crossed over his chest and an amused look in his eyes. If it weren't for that smug look on his face at having caught me off guard, I would have probably stopped to admire him. As it was, I tried not to let his gorgeous body distract me.

"Oh," I said, dropping my knife onto the bed. "It's just you."

"Just me?" Jace looked positively offended. "I think you meant to say, 'Hello boyfriend with the body of a Greek god. It's always a pleasure to see your gorgeous face.'"

I let out a laugh. "No, I'm pretty sure I meant what I said."

It was always fun to bring Jace's ego down a few notches, even if it would inevitably go back to its usual size moments later. He pretended to be offended, but I knew he really enjoyed the banter. I sank down onto my bed and leaned against the wall, tucking my legs under me. Jace crossed the room to sit beside me on the bed, curiously inspecting the drawing I had been working on.

"So, what brings you to here?" I asked, moving to take the sketch away from him. "And how exactly did you get inside?"

He resisted my efforts to take the drawing and without looking up, he motioned across the room to the now-open window in answer to my question. My bedroom was on the second floor, but knowing Jace, he had probably jumped onto the room, slid open the window, and climbed inside in a matter of minutes without making a single sound. Just thinking about it made me really glad that he was on my side. He was definitely a formidable enemy.

I glanced down to find him studying my sketch impassively. His gaze made me self-conscious, and I wondered what about the rough design of the three runes on the paper had attracted his attention. "Why are you here again?" I repeated, snatching the paper away when he looked up.

"I can't answer that question." He informed me enigmatically. "I'm a man of mystery."

"Mystery or misery?" I teased.

"You tell me." He whispered. His arms snaked around my body, pulling me close and slowly, teasingly, his mouth neared mine. When our lips met, my eyes drifted closed, and I reveled in the feeling. Jace's lips were soft, firm, and oh so intoxicating against mine. The heady feeling of having his body so close to mine drove me wild and slowly, the fervor of our kisses increased.

"Mystery, definitely mystery." I agreed as we broke apart for air. But Jace didn't seem to care about the answer. His mouth found my neck and he teased my throat with his lips.

"Um, Jace?" I spoke up.

"Yeah?" He replied, his lips tickling my neck as he spoke.

"You never answered my question."If Jace didn't always insist that he was too manly to do such a thing, I would have sworn he rolled his eyes.

"You want to know the truth?" He asked. He pulled away from me so that I could see his face.

"No, Jace, I wanted you to lie to me."

The sarcasm in my voice was unmistakable. I knew Jace heard it because the corner of his mouth turned up in a grin. "The truth is that I've gotten so used to having you around that the Institute feels empty without you there."

Aw. I couldn't help the besotted smile that covered my face.

My favorite angelic demon hunter gave me a sheepish smile as he admitted, "I tried to distract myself by working out, but I decided that I'd much rather spend the evening with you."

"The whole afternoon?" I asked. He nodded. "I know what we should do."

"Stay here so that I can kiss you senseless?" Jace suggested hopefully.

"No, but that's a great idea too." I grinned. Embarrassingly enough, I think I actually giggled. "I was going to suggest that we go to the movies."

"Movies?" Jace frowned.

"You've never heard of a movie?" I asked incredulously. Movies were obviously a mundane invention, but even so, I expected Jace to at least know what they were. "I swear, you have the worst education when it comes to the mundane world."

"Wait. Is that where they have people dress up and act like characters from stories?" He asked curiously.

"Not exactly, but you're close. That's called a play. A movie is basically a play that's been recorded by technology so that it can be replayed on a screen for other people to see." He looked confused, so I asked, "Did that make any sense?"

"A little." He said. "So, what type? Funny or scary?"

I thought it over for a moment. "Romantic," I answered, a mischievous smile on my face.

Jace screwed up his face in a grimace. "Are you serious? No way, I'm not sitting through some sappy love story."

"You would if I asked you," I teased.

"Maybe," He conceded. "But if I admitted to that, then it would be the equivalent of admitting that I was whipped. And I don't think I'm quite ready for that step yet."

"Please," I scoffed. "You've been whipped for a while now, Jace."

"Maybe." He repeated. His arm around me tightened and he pulled me close for another kiss. "And maybe not." I burrowed deeper into the warmth of Jace's arms and he squeezed me tightly before kissing me a third time. This time, the kiss was hard, hot, almost as if he wanted to prove that he was still in charge. I chuckled against his lips. Jace may wear the pants in the relationship, but I would always control the zipper. It was an inescapable, albeit metaphorical, fact of life.

"Oh, um, oops."

The voice from the doorway interrupted my thoughts and brought our kiss to an abrupt end. Closing my eyes, I leaned my forehead against Jace's and sighed. Why couldn't we ever get a moment alone?

"It's for you." Jace prodded me as if I had gotten a phone call.

"Sorry," Simon said uncomfortably from the doorway. "I just needed to speak to Clary."

"It's fine, Simon." I told him as I tried to disentangle myself from Jace's arms. After a few moments, I managed to succeed. "What do you need?"

"Um, I need to talk to you." He repeated. "Alone." He looked pointedly at Jace who gave him a scowl worthy of Alec.

"Of course," I nodded. "Will it take very long?"

Simon hesitated. He looked from me to Jace and back again uncomfortably before admitting, "It will probably take a while."

Well, there went our afternoon plans. Jace let out a frustrated noise.

"I'm sorry." I told him, taking one of his hands between mine. "I'll come to the Institute once I'm done. Maybe we can still catch the movie." Reluctantly, Jace agreed. With a nod of acknowledgement to Simon and a quick squeeze of my hand, he made his way over to the window and jumped. In seconds, he was gone.

I turned back to Simon. Looking at him closely, I realized for the first time just how distressed he looked. His normally tidy hair was mussed and sticking up and there were dark circles under his eyes. His fingers played restlessly across the door facing and he looked like he was ready to make a run for it.

"What's wrong?" I asked, motioning for him to come sit down on the bed beside me.

When we were little, we used to curl up together on this very bed and fall asleep. I couldn't count the number of nights (or days) I spent with Simon by my side. He was, and always would be, my best friend. And yet we hadn't had a proper conversation in months.

"Everything."

Kicking off his shoes, Simon plopped down onto the bed beside me.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked. "Or did you just want company?"

I tried to think of what his problem could be. Vampire stuff? Completely understandable. Izzy? They were always fighting. Maia? Was he still even seeing her? The truth was, I had spent virtually no time with my best friend lately. For all I knew, his problems were with his band. No, I corrected myself immediately. Whatever issues Simon was having, they were serious. I could tell that just by looking at him.

He ran a nervous hand through his hair before opening his mouth to speak. "My whole life has been crappy lately. You already know about the civil war that all of New York's vampires have been sucked into." He let out a sigh. "Then, there's the relationship issues. I really don't want to talk about those."

"Okay, then." I said easily. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I need a favor." Simon said, picking nervously at the comforter on my bed. He wouldn't look me in the eye as he shifted nervously.

"Sure, anything." I agreed. "What do you need?" I don't know what I was expecting, but his next words definitely weren't it.

"I need a place to stay." Seeing my confused look, he clarified, "My mom freaked when she found out about…" he gestured to himself, "this. The whole vampire thing. At first, she thought I was crazy and when she found out I was telling the truth, she was terrified. She kicked me out."

"Oh, Simon!" I knew how hard this must be for him. After the war against Valentine, all he ever wanted was to be normal. He wanted to go home and go to school like a regular teenager, at least for a while. He never wanted this. But now, it was a curse he was stuck with. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be." He shrugged nonchalantly, but I could see how much it really hurt him. "I tried staying with Raphael for a while, but that didn't work out."

"You can stay here." I told him. "You know that my mom won't mind. She loves you."

A reluctant smile spread over Simon's face and he lay back on my bed with a happy sigh. "I was hoping that was what you would say."

He looked so relieved that I was happy I could do this one thing for him. Without me, he'd be out on the streets alone and friendless. But fortunately, that was never going to happen. I'd always be here for him. Now, if only I could fix his other problems just as easily.

**Isabelle **

I was seriously freaking out. "What do you mean, you don't know?" I demanded. "How can you not know what's wrong with me?"

Magnus looked panicked. "I don't know! Normally, when the spell is finished, it leaves a signal, a trace, on the area that's damaged and I can sort through the traces to find out what's wrong. But this is different! There's a trace but I can't tell where it's coming from." Magnus dragged a hand through his hair, so distracted by the bad spell that he didn't even realize that he was ruining his perfect hairstyle.

"I don't know what happened. It's like even if I could tell where the trace was coming from; I can't see what's wrong."

"Did you do the spell wrong?" I asked.

"No!" Magnus seemed offended that I would even suggest such a thing.

"Hey, hey." Alec's soft voice filled the room. "Calm down. We can't figure out what's wrong if both of you panic." Magnus started to take slow, deep breaths that in any other situation would have been comical.

"Whoa, what's going on in here?" Jace called from the doorway, "I can hear you guys from my room."

"Oh, nothing." I said peevishly. "I just might possibly have some incurable disease that no one's ever seen before. Or else Magnus screwed up the spell."

"I executed the spell perfectly!" Magnus insisted. "I always do."

"Well, then what's wrong with me?" I demanded. Almost as soon as I spoke, Alec started trying to play peacemaker again.

Jace leaned against the wall and eyed the chaotic scene before him dispassionately. "Are you sure it's not just PMS?" He asked, sounding more than a little bored. "You always get cranky when you're…" He made a face like he didn't want to say the words.

"NO!" I insisted. "Not every female ailment is caused by PMS!"

Whenever a girl was sick or upset, that was the first thing that most guys assumed. Jace was no exception. But my stomach didn't hurt. It wasn't cramping. There was no blood. There hadn't been for over a month now.

"Girls," Jace shook his head as if I hadn't spoken. "You never know what they're going to say. Or what will upset them."

"Amen to that," Alec agreed. "You know, its times like this when I'm really glad I'm gay."

The moment I said those three letters, the answer hit me like a ton of bricks. Jace thought the problem was PMS, but it couldn't be because I wasn't on my period. But that wasn't the problem. The problem was that I should be. My period was late. By two weeks. That might not be so bad, except for the fact that it was never late. And I had been nauseous… dizzy… sick.

It felt like the world stopped turning for that one little moment. My heart stopped, my mind froze, and my body went numb.

Oh. My. God. I couldn't… I couldn't be… _pregnant_.

Could I?

**It sucks, doesn't it? I was rushed the whole way through, so I'm going to back and edit it and probably ask my bestie to help me edit it as well. But I figured you guys deserved the update, so here it is!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi. :) Sorry for the wait. Love you guys and thanks for all the reviews and favorites!**

Oh. My. God. I couldn't believe it. I _wouldn't_ believe it. It was impossible to even wrap my brain around the notion_._ I could feel myself start to panic, and it was a horrible, foreign feeling. I was panting, drawing in desperate, shallow breaths. My thoughts went into over-drive, scrambling to find one reason, any reason, that this sudden revelation wasn't true.

This couldn't happen. Not to me. I was a Shadowhunter for crying out loud. _A Shadowhunter!_ I wasn't some poor teenage drama queen or the star of some stupid mundane television show. This kind of thing only happened to people in books or movies.

"Whoa, Izzy!" Before I could so much as blink, Alec was at my side. "Are you okay?"

As much as I wanted to break down right there, I knew that I couldn't. _Think happy thoughts,_ I urged my disobedient brain. The cynical part of me felt the need to point out that happy thoughts were few and far between at the moment. Especially if any pregnancy test I took read positive.

Right now, life was bleak.

Unless, of course, the tests read negative. Either way, one thing was for sure. Someone was going to pay. Preferably Simon. Right now, castration was looking like a pretty good option.

Cheered by the thought, I smiled up at Alec. "I'm fine."I insisted.

He eyed me suspiciously. Instead of cowering like the weaker part of me wanted to, I crossed my arms over my chest and met his eyes. After a moment, his suspicions seemed to fade and gave me a slightly embarrassed look. "Sorry, just had to be sure."

Seemingly satisfied, Alec went back to talking to Magnus. Every now and then, he would send me searching looks—like he knew that something was off, even if I wouldn't tell him what—but I barely even noticed. Any joy that I had derived from plotting the castration of my boyfriend evaporated as I remembered that I was royally screwed.

Temporary insanity. Mental instability. There are quite a few words to describe what happened next. Basically, I was freaking out. Big time.

It took a total of fifteen minutes for me to realize that history was being made for the second time today. I, Isabelle Lightwood, was losing it. Sure, I probably looked normal on the outside. Strong, gorgeous, distant. I had always been good at covering my true feelings with some silly façade. But inside, my world was slowly caving in. I was in full-on panic mode, searching for any means to disprove my theory.

The second I realized just how scrambled my thoughts had become, I realized that I had to keep it together. If I didn't hold onto the threads of sanity, I _was_ going to really lose it, and everyone was going to discover my secret before I had time to even confirm it. And there was no way that I was going to let that happen. Everyone was going to learn my secret when I wanted them to and not a second before. Because even though the boys liked to claim leadership, I always got my way. Every single time.

So what if my life as I knew it was over? I'd survive. I always did. For now, I just needed a plan.

And five minutes later, I had one.

I tuned back into Magnus and Alec's conversation just in time to hear Magnus mutter something under his breath.

"Um, Magnus?" Alec spoke up.

"Hmmm?" The warlock replied.

I could swear I saw a hint of a smirk on my brother's face as he said, "You're talking to yourself again."

Magnus looked understandably offended. "Of course I talk to myself." He announced disdainfully. "How else am I supposed to get an intelligent response?"

"Glad to know you think so highly of my conversational skills," Alec snorted.

Magnus only smirked.

"Are you guys done?"I forestalled them before they could resume the disgusting flirting thing that they were doing earlier. "Because we have more important things to talk about. Like me."

Magnus chuckled. "Confidence isn't an issue with you, is it Isabelle?" I had a vague feeling that he was making fun of me, but I couldn't be sure.

Alec snorted again. "It never has been. Not with any of you guys."

"We're just that awesome." Magnus replied as if it were glaringly obvious.

"Yeah," Alec agreed sarcastically. (First flirting, now sarcasm, what was up with the boy today?) "I'm sure that's it."

Magnus sniffed haughtily. "That, my dear Alec, is your jealousy speaking," he informed his boyfriend.

I could tell Alec was about to retort, but if they kept this up, I was never going to be able to implement my ingenious plan. So before he could so much as open his mouth, I let out a loud groan.

"Ohhh," I tried to act pained. It actually wasn't very difficult. All I had to do was think about my… problem and I felt like heaving. "Could the two of you get me a glass of water or something?"

"Of course!" Alec rushed off to the kitchen with Magnus in tow. Well that was easy, I thought with a smile. I didn't even have to think up another excuse to get rid of the warlock.

I let out an audible sigh of relief. So far, everything was going according to plan.

Hopping up from the bed, I tucked my stele into one boot and my whip into the other. With those two items, I was fully prepared for anything. Of course, that wasn't to say that I didn't have another knife or two tucked into my clothing, but that was beside the point. I rose from the bed with the intention of escaping via window. I had experience sneaking out of the windows of the Institute, though admittedly, that normally happened much later at night.

"Going somewhere?" A masculine voice interrupted.

I stopped dead in my tracks. Crap. I had completely forgotten that there had been a fourth person in the room.

"Jace." I sighed.

"Come on, Isabelle." He grinned, pushing away from the wall that he had been leaning against. "Tell me where you're going. Who knows, maybe I'll even help you escape."

"I need to get something from…" I cursed my normally swift mind as I fumbled for an answer. "…Clary!"

Jace cocked an eyebrow dubiously.

"Fine," I snapped, trying to hide the devious glint in my eyes as I settled on the perfect answer, "I'm bleeding,"

Jace eyed me skeptically. "So you say. And yet, I see no blood."

"Not from _there_." I corrected, trying to cover the hint of a grin that ghosted over my lips.

Jace's eyes widened with understanding, and he shifted uncomfortably as the meaning of my words sank in. "Oh." He took a step back as if I had suddenly sprouted horns. "_Oh_."

Jace, Jace, Jace. I resisted the urge to laugh at his discomfort. Where was the boy who only hours ago had teased me about PMS?

But as quickly as the uncomfortable expression had appeared on his face, it was gone. "So that _was_ what made you sick!" He looked pleased with himself for figuring it out.

"Not exactly." I smothered yet another laugh. Boys were so easy. All you had to do was let them think that they were right, and they'd let you get away with murder. If you stroked their egos in the process, then you could get away with even more. I wasn't surprised that he never even thought to ask me why I didn't have the necessary supplies in my own bathroom downstairs.

"Now," I began, mostly to remind him of the issue at hand, "are you going to let me go or not?"

"Don't let me stop you." Jace said mildly. He stepped back and motioned to the window. "But just so you know, Magnus and Alec will be back in a minute. I might just be tempted to tell them that you're somewhere else. Maybe I'll say that you sent them on a useless errand just so that you could escape the infirmary to spend time with a certain vampire."

I narrowed my eyes at him menacingly. "You wouldn't."

He grinned enigmatically. "Wouldn't I?"

There was no doubt in my mind that he would. And normally, I would have replied by blackmailing him right back. I knew more than a few of Jace's dirty little secrets. But right now, I just couldn't muster up the energy. My brief happy moment completely gone, I let out a tired sigh. This was really shaping up to be the second worst day of my entire life.

"What do you want?" I grumbled.

"Help."

I narrowed my eyes at him yet again. "What do you need that could possibly require my help?"

"That is for me to know and you to find out." I couldn't be sure, but I was pretty sure he was smirking. _Again._ I really needed to find some way to bring his ego down a peg. Or five.

With those reassuring ( sarcasm) words, he pushed me toward the window and bid me adieu.

"Isabelle?" He called after me, just as I was preparing to climb onto the roof.

"Yeah?"

"Just so you know, there are easier ways to get out of the Institute. Without the aid of windows."

I barely even heard him. I was in a rush to make it out before my brother and his boyfriend reappeared. If Alec knew that I was leaving, he would demand that I sit back down in bed while he or Magnus retrieved whatever I needed. But even if I hadn't been in a rush, my mind was too preoccupied with thoughts of my possible predicament to even consider whatever Jace had just said.

I climbed down from the roof with relative ease, finding easy foot and handholds all the way down. In mere minutes, I was free.

The street in front of the Institute was deserted, but as soon as I rounded the corner, I was met with the familiar rush of New York City at its finest. Lights lit the street like a stage, dark alleys providing the perfect contrast. The atmosphere was almost relaxing. And as the cool night air brushed over my face, I felt a little of the tension leave my body.

Because the Institute was in a relatively safe part of the city, I could wander without paying a lot of attention to my surroundings. I watched people hurry past, each with something to do and somewhere to be. On my right, a dark man in a long trench coat hurried past, making it only a block or so before he appeared to be swallowed up by the darkness of night. On my other side, a woman stopped to peer into the window of a tiny shop, only to change her mind and turn to walk away.

It was this—the sense of purpose that infused the masses—that drew me to the city. I loved how to these people, I was just another girl on the street. I was nameless, faceless. No longer was I Isabelle Lightwood, _Shadowhunter_. I was just Isabelle, a girl as mundane as any other.

Reality, however, continued to ruin my life.

The escape was refreshing, but it never lasted long enough. I was always invariably reminded of the mile-long list of reasons why I wasn't _just another girl_. And today, those reasons were even more important than usual. With yet another dramatic sigh, I stepped out of the shadows and set off in search of answers.

Two blocks.

That was how long I had to walk before I found a store that sold the type of answers I was searching for.

I pushed open the door only to be greeted by the sound of a bell tinkling over head. Even though I knew that none of my acquaintances— Shadowhunter, Downworlder, or otherwise— would be anywhere in the vicinity, I couldn't help the frantic way my head whipped around, automatically searching for discerning eyes.

My onyx eyes found no evidence of any untoward onlookers, but I still couldn't find it in myself to relax. Wasting as little time as possible, I searched for the aisle I would need. It was relatively easy to find, and as I made my way in that direction, I mentally prepared myself for what I was about to do. I tried to convince myself that I could do this. That this was necessary. But unsurprisingly, my inner pep talk was a fail. An epic one at that. So much for moral support. Why was Clary never around when I needed her?

But I soon realized that no amount of mental preparation or moral support would have prepared me for the sight I was about to see. Because in front of me now was an entire _aisle_ filled with pregnancy tests. The prospect of choosing one was daunting to say the least. Just looking at them, I felt the pounding in my chest begin again. A feeling I couldn't quite name made my pulse race. It pushed adrenaline through my veins as the reality of the situation sunk in. This wasn't just another skeleton that I could add to my steadily-filling closet. This was a mistake that I would have to live with for the rest of my life.

Unless…

"Do you need help?"

The feminine, motherly voice (so unlike my own mother's) cut through my reverie and brought me back to the present.

My first instinct was to go cold. When thrust into uncomfortable situations, I had a habit of becoming the Ice Queen that my ex Meliorn had dubbed me (not that he was much less frigid, but that's another story completely). Looking her over, I realized that this woman was barely more than a girl. Despite her motherly voice and the child in her arms, I'd say she was twenty-two max. But here she was in the pregnancy section, looking completely at ease. Maybe it was her self-assurance or maybe it was the true concern that was so obvious in her eyes, but something about her made me realize that this woman might be exactly the kind of help I needed.

"Yes, please." My voice was small and scared. It didn't sound like me at all.

The woman seemed to recognize that, and she smiled at me reassuringly. "It's alright. I know you're probably terrified out of your mind, but believe me when I say that it's going to be okay."

I didn't know how to respond. This woman was obviously a mundane, and from my experience with them, they didn't usually go out of their way to make friends. Most of them seemed to sense that something was different about us, and they either avoided us like the plague or found themselves strangely attracted to us. And yet here this woman was, smiling down at me as if she knew me. As if we were friends.

Viewing my silence as discomfort, the woman laughed ruefully. "I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself. My name's Maggie. And this is Noah." She set the child down in the buggy and reached to shake my hand.

"Isabelle." I replied laconically. I still wasn't sure what to think of this woman. Was she real? Or could she be a demon in disguise?

"Finding out that you're going to be a single mother for the first time isn't easy," The woman—Maggie—smiled. "But who knows, some day you might even find yourself coming back with another."

I couldn't refrain from snorting skeptically. "Somehow, I doubt that."

I wasn't prepared to have one child. Much less two. I was not and probably never would be mother material.

Brushing a strand of blonde hair out of the child's eyes, Maggie smiled down at him fondly. "That's exactly what I would have said three years ago. But then, I had this little guy." Said little guy dug through her groceries and giggled all the while. "I was only eighteen then, and it was scary as… well, suffice it to say, I thought my life was over. But now, Noah is the best thing that's ever happened to me." Not demons, I decided. They couldn't be evil. They must be exactly what they appeared to be: mundanes. And strange mundanes at that.

"He's cute," I admitted somewhat begrudgingly. "But a child wouldn't stand a chance with me. I don't have very good motherly instincts. Plus, I burn water."

I didn't know what it was about the woman in front of me that was making me admit fears that I wouldn't tell my closest friends, but whatever it was, it was beginning to scare me. She had me talking about taking care of my possible child. I wasn't sure if I was even pregnant yet. But inevitably, thoughts of taking care of a baby led to thoughts of the only child I had ever taken care of in my life…

Max.

Even though he was almost a teenager, he was still a child in the eyes of the Clave. And it was my lack of protective instincts, my own stupidity, which got him killed. And for that, I would never forgive myself. If I couldn't even take care of my own brother, then how in the name of the angel could I possibly take care of a child of my own?

"You're going to surprise yourself." The mundane woman answered my thoughts as if I had spoken them aloud. "I know I did," she grinned conspiratorially and added, "This time, I'm hoping the test reads positive."

She reached across the aisle and grabbed two pregnancy tests, handing the second one to me. "Here you go." She seemed to think about it for a minute before adding, "Actually, you'll probably want to take more than one." She gathered two more and placed the three of them in my arms.

I didn't really know what to say, so I settled for a muttered, "Thanks."

"It was nice meeting you, Isabelle." Maggie finished with a grin before pushing her buggy down the aisle. I didn't say a word as she started to leave.

"One last thing," She called over her shoulder. "Just remember, you never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have." With one last smile and a knowing wink, she added, "You'll make a great mother. Just wait and see."

The words seemed to echo in the quiet of the store long after she was gone. Or maybe that was just my temporary insanity resurfacing. All I could think about was how wrong she was. I was already strong. Being pregnant was only going to make me weak. And if these tests read positive, there was no chance that anything in life would be going my way any time soon. I certainly wasn't going to be a great mother. Heck, I hadn't even decided if I was going to have the freaking baby, much less raise it.

As my mind raced, my body went on autopilot. I didn't even realize that I had moved until I found myself standing on the deserted street in front of the Institute. Looking down, I realized that sometime between walking back to the Institute and buying the tests, I had grabbed a fourth one. Just for good measure.

Looking up, I could make out the soaring cathedral that made up the true Institute. Visible only to the trained eye of someone familiar with my world, the spires of the ancient church looked strange amidst the skyscrapers of modern day New York. I could relate. I wore a glamour every day, even when I didn't use my stele to apply the disguise. Appearances were deceiving, mine more so than most. But c'est la vie. That was life.

And right now, mine sucked.

As I moved through the halls of the Institute, no one stirred. The dark halls were deserted, and nothing made a sound. Luckily, neither did I. Silently, I made my way to my bathroom.

My eyes passed over the glaring white sink and the wooden cabinet it was built into. The claw-foot bathtub, too, lost my interest almost immediately. Instead, I found myself staring fixedly at the white porcelain toilet. My gaze wavered from the bag in my hands to the toilet and back again. _Well, Isabelle, _I thought to myself, _the supplies are all here._ No use putting it off any longer. It was time for the moment of truth.

Time to pee on a stick.

**Soo... what do you think?**

**The last line amused me. :) Hopefully it amused you too, and the chapter lived up to expectations. **


	7. Chapter 7

**I could apologize forever about my updating habits, but it would probably be pointless because I'm not going to have time to fix them in the near future. I'm soooo sorry, but I don't have time to update regularly. I'm trying to maintain a 3.97 GPA while doing two sports and seven clubs at school, among other things. **

**On the bright side, though, I already know what's going to happen in the next chapter so that should move things along a little. :)**

Positive.

Wind swept at my coat, drawing up the edges as I stood staring at the building across the street. The breeze was refreshing, but the way the neighbors were beginning to look at me wasn't. I had only been standing here for fifteen minutes, and already, they were giving me strange looks.

Initially, I had been trying to convince myself to approach the house across the street. But now, I couldn't get that word out of my head.

Positive.

It was eight letters, three syllables, and quite possibly the worst word ever uttered by a mundane. Or a downworlder. Or just about anyone. I could feel the sinking feeling return to my stomach just thinking about it.

Less than an hour ago, in my bathroom at the Institute, I had seen those eight little letters etched across that tiny stick. Then, I had remembered from stories, movies that often these tests were wrong. Besides, how could a mundane pregnancy test tell me, a shadowhunter, that I had a teeny tiny child inside of me? Obviously, the test was wrong. It was a fluke, and that was the only explanation I was willing to believe.

…But just to be sure, I'd try another one. Or two.

It couldn't hurt, could it?

But the wait for results was interminable. And honestly, figuring out how to _read_ the stupid tests made the process twice as long. They didn't all say positive or negative. Some had plus and minus signs, and the one before me now had two confusing lines. Seriously. What the heck was that supposed to mean?

I had no idea, but I did know one thing. If it meant that I was pregnant with _two_ little vampire babies, then someone (Simon probably) really was going die. And it was going to be a slow, painful death. He deserved it after all.

Sex wasn't the problem. I'd done that once or twice without any life-changing results. Okay, three or four times. And that was just with Simon. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't exactly easy. I had just never harbored much hope for true love. I loved my parents, Alec, and even Jace in my own way. But I never thought I'd be lucky enough to stumble across the sort of love my parents had. I had seen what that kind of love could do; how it could tear people apart as easily as it could bring them together.

I wasn't willing to expose the most vulnerable part of myself that way.

But there was one person who could make me doubt that unshakable resolve to do things my own way. Guesses, anyone? The only person who could make me doubt myself was Simon Lewis, and I wanted to hate him for it. But hate was a passionate emotion, and often it was barely distinguishable from love. That fine line was easily blurred. One small thing could tip the scales, changing the situation entirely.

Almost immediately, my mind registered that this was a dangerous line of thought. I forced myself away from the uncomfortable subject, back into reality. Back to the next test pregnancy test. I jumped up and snatched it from its spot on the counter.

Two lines. _Again. _(Insert expletive here.)

Pick a cuss word, any cuss word, and I promise you that I said it after reading the directions on the box. Because, you know what? A pregnancy test with two lines indicated that the results were positive. Meaning, I was pregnant. Supposedly, anyway. I threw the little stick on the ground and picked up another, praying for a different result. Any different result would be better than the indisputable evidence before me. Even inconclusive. That's all I was asking for, one maybe— one chance— to give me hope that this whole ordeal was a dream.

But no, there it was in little blue letters stretching across the stick, just like the other three pregnancy tests I had taken the time to pee on. This little inanimate object that I held in my hand was telling me that there was a tiny human being growing inside of me. And it was obnoxiously insistent.

My hand slipped down to cover my stomach, and closing my eyes, I slid down the wall. My butt hit the floor with a thump, but I didn't even feel it.

My mind was on the four mundane pregnancy tests lining the counter above me, their wrappers strewn across the bathroom. Sure, one false positive was possible. Two was probably stretching it a little, but I could still convince myself that there was a chance. But four?

Four positive pregnancy tests meant that there was definitely a slight chance that I was pregnant. But it was teeny tiny. Miniscule.

Oh, who was I kidding? Try as I might, there was no denying it.

I was pregnant.

_Pregnant! _Blood rushed to my head and if I hadn't already been sitting down, I would have fallen over. All of the clamoring voices that had beleaguered me for hours were gone. Disappeared. Vamoosed. They vanished into thin air, and I was left with a silence so devastating it might as well have been screaming at me.

For the first time in my life, I had no idea what to do. 

It took me a while to recover my wits enough to realize that I was curled up on the bathroom floor, seconds away from uncontrollable tears. When I did, though, I recovered fast. A sense of control returned with a vengeance, and it didn't take me long to get a grip on the situation. Well, a semblance of one anyway.

I started with simple facts. I was positive. I was pregnant. I was petrified. I was also a lot of other words that didn't start with 'P'. But as much as I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, I couldn't. That just wasn't me.

It didn't matter that my world was caving in; I had to do _something_.

Which was why, less than an hour later, I found myself here, in the middle of Brooklyn, staring up at a nondescript apartment building. Only, my never-ending supply of courage seemed to have chosen now to run dry.

How was I going to tell him? What could I possibly say? I mean, I couldn't just saunter up to my on-again-off-again boyfriend and say, hey Simon, do you remember that night we had sex on the roof of that club? Yeah well, you should have worn a condom because surprise, surprise, vampires can have babies. How do I know? Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you. I'm pregnant.

Yeah, for some reason, I couldn't see that little speech going over too well.

But he deserved to know, and I was going to have to tell him sometime.

Unless…Thinking like a mundane (I had been doing a bit too much of that lately), I realized that there was another option that would let me go back to normal. It would even let me pretend that none of this had ever happened.

Abortion.

It sounded like an easy option, but I could barely bring myself to think it, much less go through with it.

Even though I hadn't been raised in Alicante (or even Idris), my family still answered to the Clave. We were still shadowhunters, and Idris was still our home country. Because of this, Alec and I (and even Jace) were raised on traditional values. In Idris, abortion wasn't even an option. There, teenage girls didn't get pregnant out of wedlock. Our society didn't even approve of homosexuals. Those types of thing just _didn't happen._

Well, it looked like my family was just destroying social conventions left and right.

The thought made me grimace, and that in and of itself showed just how defeated I felt. Normally, the thought of being rebellious could bring a smile to my face in seconds. Now, all I could manage was a facsimile of one.

Basically, I was back at square one. That, unfortunately, meant that I was going to have do this sooner or later. So, I ignored the dull ache in my stomach and steeled my resolve. Whether I liked it or not, it was time to get this show on the road.

I lifted my hand to the hard, wooden surface of the door and knocked.

A girl I had never seen before answered the door with a smile. As she eyed me up and down, her pleasant expression dissolved into a frown. "Can I help you?"

The look on her face immediately made me standoffish. Typical. Could someone please explain to me why females in general hated me on sight? The inherent sense of competition would be enough to upset a lesser girl. I, however, knew it was just an outward display of jealousy. Though honestly, the distaste was usually mutual.

One eyebrow went up and a hand perched on my hip. "I'm Isabelle Lightwood." I told her. This statement procured no reaction. If anything, she looked decidedly unimpressed. But the lack of recognition wasn't much of a surprise. It wasn't like I had any idea who she was either.

"Can I speak to Simon?" I asked, deciding to aim for a polite approach.

The girl in front of me shifted uncomfortably. "He's… well, Simon's not exactly here right now."

It was my turn to frown. The words she said weren't exactly strange, but from the way she said them, I couldn't help wondering where exactly Simon was.

"Rebecca?" A voice from inside the house called. Now, _that_ voice I recognized. "Rebecca, who is that?" Simon's mom called, her footsteps echoing as she neared the door.

"Um, it's no one," the girl— Rebecca, I was guessing—shouted back. She made as if to slam the door in my face, but Simon's mom caught it before she could.

"Hello, Mrs. L—" The words died in my throat as I caught sight of the glare on her face.

To put it simply, Mrs. Lewis looked royally ticked off.

As her son's unofficial girlfriend, I probably should have smiled hopefully at her and employed every hit of my charm. But, being me, I found that thought utterly laughable.

So when Elaine Lewis, at the imposing height of five foot seven, glared up at me, I only arched one perfectly plucked brow.

"Is there a problem, Mrs. Lewis?" I didn't mean to sound patronizing—well, maybe just a little—but that's the way it came out.

"Problem? There's no problem!" Mrs. Lewis all but shouted. I noticed more than a touch of hysteria in her voice. "My son is gone and he's never coming back!"

Whoa. "What happened to Simon?" I demanded.

"You," she hissed. Her elegant features were marred by the glare she directed at me. "I used to be so proud of him. He was a good boy, a sweet boy. He was even a vegetarian." I opened my mouth to say something but then closed it again abruptly. "Now he thinks he's a vampire, and he drinks blood. _Blood!_"

What was I supposed to say to that?

I settled for "Oh."

"Oh? Oh? That's all you have to say?" The woman sounded like she was nearing a breaking point, and for all I knew, she had already snapped. "You've ruined my son, Isadora! All I wanted was for him to be happy. To grow up like any good Jewish boy, with respect for his elders and his culture. He even had a nice little girlfriend for a while."

I narrowed my eyes at her. First, the woman got my name wrong. Then, she told me I ruined her son. Excuse me if I was a little annoyed.

And she didn't stop there. The rant continued. "But no, Simon couldn't be content with his nice girl and his video games. Instead, he has chosen a life of depravity. And the fault is yours. I have half a mind to report you to the police!"

"For what? Dating a Jewish boy?" I felt for the woman, I really did. But she was getting on my nerves and I couldn't resist. "Good luck with that. You'd have to know my name first."

Future note to self: Don't upset Simon's mother.

Most of the time, she was as logical and calm as her son. (Though admittedly nowhere near as sarcastic.) Now, however, the woman looked livid. In that moment, I could have sworn she was going to throttle me.

So, it was shocking when as suddenly as it had appeared, her murderous expression faded away. It was replaced with weary lines that made her look ten years older, and I couldn't quite rid myself of the feeling that I was partially responsible. Not that you'd ever hear me admit that out loud.

"Ever since my husband's death, my children are all I've had." She said, exhaling heavily. "But somehow, I have failed them."

"Mrs. Lew—" I started.

"No. Whatever you have to say, I don't want to hear it. Simon is no longer my son. So you are looking for him in the wrong place."

"Mom."

Rebecca's quiet voice, barely more than a whisper, cut through the silence like a knife. From her spot behind her mother, she was glaring daggers at me.

"Mom, it's going to be okay."

Elaine Lewis, thin but usually so unflappable, let out a sound that resembled a sob. She didn't even seem to hear her daughter's words as her shoulders hunched and her hands came up to cover her face.

"Go. Just go."

She didn't have to tell me twice. There was nothing left to say, and I was dying to get out of there. Awkward situations and parental rants were never really my thing. I was gone before she could even slam the door. And trust me, she did slam it. Somewhere down the block, another door opened and closed, but I didn't so much as glance up.

I was a little busy wondering what the heck just happened.

All I knew was that my life was becoming infinitely more complicated by the minute. One second, I was dating a different guy every week and killing as many demons as possible. The next thing I know, I'm standing on the porch of my baby daddy's house while his mom loses it. This was not part of the grand scheme of things. Seriously, Simon and I had never even decided to date exclusively.

Yeah, definitely not part of the plan.

Especially the part where I had somehow gone from drop dead gorgeous demon-slayer to mother-to-be. And the part where I had gone from planning to tell Simon my dirty little secret to learning that he had revealed his own to his closed-minded mother.

God, my head was throbbing.

My life sucked. My body hurt. And suddenly, all I could think was that I was going to get fat. Fat and ugly. That's what pregnancy did, right? It made your feet swell and gave you stretch marks. Not to mention the final product of the whole process. A tiny, bubbling baby.

The horrors of the evening just got worse and worse and the one person who could possibly make it better had seemingly disappeared off the face of the planet.

Where the hell was Simon?

My chances of finding him at this time of night were slim to none, but I just couldn't bring myself to go home. Going back to the Institute meant either facing up to my new-found problem or cleverly concealing it. I really couldn't be bothered to do either at the moment. I couldn't deal with the questions or the concerned glances Alec was sure to have. Nor could I deal with any more of Jace's snide comments. I just wanted to be alone.

I wanted to pretend like none of this had ever happened.

Suddenly, I was struck with an idea. Life in New York never slowed down, and the pace only quickened at night. There were places I could go all across this city where I could be surrounded by people and yet be completely alone. It was nearing nine thirty and clubs across the city were just starting to open their doors. In my experience, you didn't have to be legally old enough to drink to be allowed in, especially if the place housed creatures of a more supernatural variety.

Thinking about this, I suddenly realized that I couldn't go to Pandemonium or even Mayhem. At either club, I was sure to run into at least one person I was hoping to avoid. With my dating history, I could probably find an old ex or enemy at any supernatural club in the city. That left me with a slightly more distasteful option.

Mundane clubs.

On the bright side, I mused, there was no chance of encountering one of those inter-dimensional parasites politely referred to as demons. And anywhere was better than home.

Only twenty minutes later, I found myself in the thick of things. Words and music beat loudly from an invisible sound system and all around me, people were having the time of their lives. Whether they were here to forget old memories or make new ones, everyone here had something in common. They were looking for a good time.

Strobe lights cast bright lights and shadows across the room, and dry ice filled the place with smoke. Feeling the rhythm of the music beat through my veins into my heart and soul, I danced my heart out.

But no matter what I did, I couldn't escape.

Every time I tried to forget, every time I tried to lose myself in the beat, something dragged me right back to the present. There was no denying the fact that life as I knew it was over. My existence and that of the people close to me would never be the same. My world was spinning in circles, turning on its axis, with problem after problem crashing down around me.

The pounding of the bass in the giant, luminescent room seemed only to be an echo of the tension in my mind and body. A voice inside my head was screaming at me to just give up now.

But another voice, quieter but just as persistent, insisted that I hold on. I found myself clinging to that thought, desperately holding on to some mad hope that everything would turn out okay.

**What do you think? Was it worth the wait? **


	8. Chapter 8

**Okay, so I'm a horrible person. I left you guys hanging for months, and I didn't even leave you with a great chapter. To make it up to you, I plan to start updating a lot more now that its summer and I finally have time to breathe. **

**Oh and you may have noticed that I updated like four other chapters. The changes are small though, things you might not even notice unless you read it very thoroughly before.  
><strong>

**My thanks go out to the loyal few who reviewed! This chapter is dedicated to you guys. This is where the story begins to coincide with my other story Begging for Mercy. (Chapters 1-3, I think) I'll try to repeat as few scenes as possible for the reader's sake (assuming there are still more than five of you) and still stay true to the plot line.**

**Shutting up now. On to the story...  
><strong>

_**Present Day**_

The next morning, despite my wicked hangover, everything was a little clearer.

I gave up on the idea of gently breaking the news to Simon. Instead, I decided that he didn't need to know about my pregnancy just yet. At least not until I had come to grips with it myself.

I decided not to talk to him until I got my head on straight.

Besides, what he didn't know couldn't hurt him, right?

Days passed quickly and it soon became surprisingly easy to forget about my "little problem." My closest friends and family all remained wrapped up in their own little worlds, and life continued on as normal. Well, as normal as life can get when you're a teenage demon-killer, anyway.

For the most part, Clary, Jace, Alec, and I spent our days following leads and our nights hunting demons. I had begged (ordered, really) my fellow Shadowhunters to go on more missions, and I was either very persuasive or very annoying because they agreed.

We were killing the evil suckers left and right, at a rate that would have made our absent parents proud.

Or maybe not. We weren't just frequenting clubs anymore. We also spent some time in seedy bars and deserted downtown streets. Of course, if given a choice, I would always choose Pandemonium as a hunting ground. I knew the place like the back of my hand and could spot a demon easily among the crowd.

It was here that Jace, Clary, Alec, and I found ourselves tonight with drinks in hand and knives within easy reach. Clary and Jace had just dispatched a particularly nasty demon. And, as usual, I felt a strong desire to stab my adopted brother.

"Whoa. What happened?" Alec asked, eyeing the mess they had created in the back room of the club.

"You two missed all the fun," Jace told us with his typical grin etched firmly across his face. "Maybe you'll get lucky and we'll tell you about it."

Like I said before, I could stab him.

I wanted some action. I'd love to put my whip to good use, and killing a demon or two sounded positively blissful right now. _Finally_, something interesting happened and I missed it. Why did this always happen to me?

To make matters worse, I was soon roped into calling _Simon,_ of all people, for a ride home.

When I made a decision, I generally followed through. But this whole not speaking to him thing wasn't lasting very long. If I was being honest (which I didn't do very often), I had to admit that it didn't take much to convince me.

I had a strange desire to see him.

The knowledge made me shift uncomfortably. This desire to spend time with Simon wasn't exactly new, but that didn't mean it was something I welcomed. I wasn't used to needing people. Feelings like that left uncertainties in my mind. Doubts that shouldn't be there. I felt like I was reading a book written in a foreign language I had studied all too briefly. And I really wished my stomach would stop filling with butterflies the way it always did when I thought of him.

Hormones. I blamed the hormones.

They made resistance futile. They insisted that I wanted to see Simon. And what they wanted, they got or else I was faced with unpleasant consequences.

The hormones weren't completely to blame though. Clary had something to with it.

"All you have to do is ask him, Isabelle, I'm sure he'll say yes." She said in that sweet, cajoling tone of voice that always made Jace do whatever she wanted. I gave her a look. Unlike Jace, I wasn't dying to get into her pants.

"Just do it, Isabelle." Alec insisted, thrusting Clary's phone at me. "I need to meet Magnus in half an hour."

"Fine." I muttered. I thanked whatever deity was up in the sky that the three of them seemed completely unaware of my inner turmoil.

Simon answered on the third ring. "Clary?" He asked.

The sound of his voice hit me like a ton of bricks. "Oh… um…." I floundered.

Mentally, I kicked myself. We were going to have a baby together, and I couldn't even say hello properly. Can you say epic fail?

"Guess again." I quickly recovered.

"Isabelle." He said firmly, realizing that it was me.

Was it just my imagination or did he sound slightly put out?

"Sorry to bother you," I said, aiming for coy. "I was just wondering if you had any plans tonight."

There was a noticeable hesitation on Simon's end. "I don't know, Isabelle. I'm kind of in the middle of something right now."

"Oh," I let a touch of dismay color my tone. "Are you sure? Because I was really looking forward to spending some time with you." Turning away from the rest of the group, I whispered a few suggestions about what we could do together.

"I don't know," Simon repeated skeptically. But this time he didn't sound quite so sure.

"Please, Simon," I coaxed softly. "You know you want to."

Tugging at the buttons of my coat, I continued romancing the slightly hesitant teenage boy on the other end of the phone. Alec was sending me worried glances from a few feet away, and Clary was miming throwing up. Belatedly, I realized how intimate the conversation sounded.

The knowledge gave me no compunction to quit flirting. Actually, I made my tone a little more sugary for their benefit. They deserved it after all the times I'd been forced to play third wheel with Alec and Magnus. Not to mention being forced to watch Clary and Jace try to eat each other's faces. That particular experience was one I would never forget.

Alec gave me another worried look.

"Oh, shut up." I frowned at him. "Like you don't do the same with Magnus." Both Jace and Clary burst into laughter. I politely ignored them.

In all honesty, they were the worst as far as P.D.A. went. They shamelessly eye-raped each other on a regular basis, and didn't even bother to conceal any romantic overtures.

"Please, Si." I begged.

"Just give it up, Iz," Jace suggested. "If we had taken a taxi, we could be home by now. Besides, the bloodsucker's car is too small for all of us."

I glared at him. The fact that there would be five of us in Simon's two-door jeep was completely irrelevant. As was the fact that said jeep only seated four. The hormones were intent on getting their way now, and Simon was going to come over whether he liked it or not. Personally, I was counting on the former.

"Don't call him that!" I snapped.

Though you'd never guess it by watching them, Jace really had no problem with Simon and vice versa. Without Jace, Simon wouldn't even be alive. By biting Jace, Simon had been able to survive and even walk in the sun. The selfsame Angel blood that ran through Jace's veins gave Simon the honorific of Daylighter.

And yet, they still acted as if they hated each other. Personally, I believed they should just pull them out and compare, if you know what I mean. They were a couple arguments short of beating on their chests and declaring their manliness.

_Boys, _I sighed inwardly, _such idiots._

"What was that?" Simon asked. Too late, I realized I had spoken aloud.

"Jace said something stupid," I replied in an attempt to cover my mistake. Luckily, Jace was too busy staring at Clary to hear me insult him.

"He does that a lot." Simon agreed, completely oblivious to the fact that he had just proven my earlier point.

"Try telling him that." I scoffed. "Oh, wait. You already did. Multiple times, if I remember correctly."

"He deserved it." Simon countered. I made a faint noise of agreement. I hated to admit it, but the boy had a point there. The golden-haired "angel" had a perpetual habit of instigating things.

"Forget about him," Simon suggested when I didn't say anything. "He's a loser."

"Funny," I replied dryly. "He said the same thing about you."

"Haha." I could tell even through the phone that Simon was rolling his eyes. "Was patronizing me part of your plan to get me to agree to take you home?"

"Of course." I informed him. "Well, that and a bit of heavy flirting."

He snorted in response. "I don't know about the patronizing part, but the flirting appears to be doing its job," he conceded. "I guess I could come over for a little while, but only to save you from Mr. Perfect and his band of followers."

I resisted the urge to scoff again. The implication that Simon could save me from anything I couldn't fix all by myself was laughable. So was his suggestion that Jace had followers. The boy had a single follower in the form of his girlfriend. Two, if you counted Church the cat.

I didn't.

"You can pick us at Pandemonium." I said brightly. Almost as an afterthought, I added, "You know Clary, Jace, and Alec are here too, right?"

"Yeah," he said. "I'll be there in a few."

"Yes! Thanks Simon. See you soon." I hung up before he could change his mind.

"I take it he agreed." Jace commented.

What can I say? When I'm good, I'm good. But when I'm bad, I'm even better.

"Well, duh," Clary told him.

Almost as soon as I pressed the call end button, I regretted it. The "hormones" that had bolstered my confidence earlier seemed to have disappeared. I dug a mirror out of my boot (my storage place of choice) and unconsciously began fixing my appearance. If I couldn't be comfortable, I could at least look good when Simon showed up.

Apparently I was the only one who thought so.

"Why do you need to look at yourself?" asked Jace. "You're only going to break the mirror."

Stowing the mirror safely in its hiding place, I patted my hair one last time before tossing the dark locks over my shoulder. "If I were Clary, I'd poison your food." I informed him.

"If you were Clary," Jace replied, "I'd eat it."

Let's just say if looks could kill, Jace would be dead. Very dead.

I only glared at him. Clary, on the other hand, elbowed the blonde in the ribs. Suddenly, I found myself liking her much better.

At least until the two of them started that eye-raping thing again. My invulnerable, unflappable adopted brother slipped his hand into hers and leaned forward with a soft smile. "Don't look at me like that." He said.

"Like what?" Clary asked, leaning in closer. She looked vaguely confused, but then again so was I.

"Like you feel sorry for me. Like you want to make me feel better." His expression belied his words. He sounded like he wanted to push her away, but his face said otherwise.

Clary seemed to notice this as well. "But I do want to help you." She said.

"Yeah, but I don't need sympathy, Clary. I just need you."

The butterflies in my stomach multiplied and I couldn't make myself watch anymore. The whole romance thing in general just didn't sit well with me. Watching Jace go from strong and scary (and extremely annoying) to soft and vulnerable was just plain off-putting. I wasn't sure I wanted that kind of love. Or any kind of love for that matter.

Still, I couldn't help but smile when I thought about Simon's dorky word t-shirts and his crooked smile. There was just something about him that got to me.

Seeing him minutes later, I was reminded of that once again. Unfortunately, I was also reminded of my dirty little secret. The weight of not telling him was more than a little crushing.

My stomach was threatening to rebel for the third time today. It seemed like no matter what I did, the dull ache wouldn't go away, and sitting next to Simon only made my discomfort worse. I couldn't look at him without being reminded of the tiny little life that was growing inside of me.

Unfortunately, that wasn't even the awkward part.

In the back seat of the car, Clary and Jace were making out. Again. I was sure if I turned around, they would be in a position somewhat similar to those I had witnessed couples in at Pandemonium earlier today. The noises were bad enough. I refused look because then I would have to gouge my eyes out. And they were only at the "well behaved grinding" stage.

Alec was shifting uncomfortably away from them, and Simon was watching the road.

"Gross," my brother grimaced. "You two need to get a room."

To which Jace replied, "I wouldn't mind that."

Talk about unnecessary mental images. If their goal was to scar me for life, they were doing a pretty good job.

"Too bad," I heard Clary whisper to him from the back.

This got a laugh from Simon. "Poor Jace," he said sardonically. "He got beat up and rejected all in the same night."

"Kiss my-" Jace began.

I was not in the mood for this.

"Shut up, you guys." I interrupted. "Don't start this tonight."

"Doesn't matter," Simon countered. "We're at the Institute anyway."

After the thirty minute car ride, I think we were all dying to get out of there. Clary and Jace disappeared almost as soon as we got inside. I could hear the strains of faint piano music, telling exactly where the two of them were. Alec, too, disappeared. I assumed he was going to meet Magnus for that midnight rendezvous he was talking about earlier.

Simon and I found ourselves alone in the kitchen. After spending a lot of his time in this very room, Simon looked completely at home here. He shifted around the kitchen with ease and pulled out a chair to sit in.

He might have comfortable here, but I was decidedly uneasy. I was holding on to the biggest secret of my life, and here I was trying to act normal. I made some excuse about going to the bathroom to get away from him.

Of course when I told him that I was going to the restroom, that didn't necessarily mean I had any plans to actually _go_ there.

Instead, I wandered aimlessly through the halls of the Insitute, moving slowly with no particular destination in mind. My feet took me down (or up, I should say) familiar halls and flights of stairs. While I walked, my mind whirled.

I thought about Simon, our relationship, his mom, the baby, anything and everything that had happened lately. I was feeling so much, so strongly, that it was a wonder I didn't keel over from emotional overload right there. But out of all the images in my mind, one appeared over and over again more prominently than the others.

Simon. When we had first met. When I had let him into the Institute, he looked so lost and alone but determined at the same time. All he wanted was to find Clary. He had no way of knowing that he was going to get much more than he bargained for. Back then, I thought of him only as a new plaything, a mundane boy who might be a bit of fun. In hindsight, it looked like neither of us knew what we were getting into.

Without realizing it, I climbed back down the same flight of stairs and started to weave my way through the halls. I made all the way down the stairs and approximately two feet down the hall before I ran into something solid with a loud thud.

"Umphh!"

"Oops."

Perfect. I looked down to see Simon's long-limbed body sprawled across the floor in front of me, and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing.

"You having fun down there?" I teased my bad mood from earlier surprisingly gone.

From his position on the floor, Simon smiled. "Well, there is a nice view." He pointed at me, and belatedly, I realized that he could see up my skirt.

"Cute, Simon." I held out a hand to for him to grasp. "Now, are you going to get up or would you rather lay down there on your butt all day?"

"I dunno. I kinda like it down here," He admitted.

I raised an eyebrow. "And I'm not even wearing my sexy underwear today." Despite his words, he accepted my proffered hand and clambered to his feet.

"You're always sexy, Iz." His dark eyes burned into mine and our joking banter turned serious. A smile came unbidden to my face. "Don't look so happy, Isabelle, or I'll start to think you have a thing for me." He joked, looking pleased with himself.

I rolled my eyes.

"It's okay," he assured me. "You don't have to stop staring. I was kinda enjoying it."

"You think you're cute, don't you?" I replied. He was, in a geeky, video game nerd sort of way. Since he had become a vampire, he was even kind of hot. Okay, more than kind of. My nerdy boyfriend was really hot. And cute. And for some unknown reason, he cared about _me_.

"A little bit," Simon admitted. He held his thumb and forefinger close together to indicate exactly how cute he thought he was.

"Yeah, well… you are."

A hint of a grin flitted across his face. "Is that really such a bad thing?"He asked.

"Right now, that's debatable." I informed him. It was a lie, really. I mean, I could have held a lot of things against him, but I wasn't in the mood for that. I was in the mood for a night full of teasing and playful jokes. Kisses, alcohol, and caresses would make the evening even better. Ooh, and no clothes. A girl could dream, right?

Slipping my hand into Simon's, I tugged him down the hall in the direction of my room. Most of the time, when I made a move, his cheeks turned red or he made some awkward excuse, but slowly, he was starting to get more comfortable having my body in close proximity to his. This time, he didn't even blink.

Still smiling, he followed me down the hall. "So, have you thought of any band names since our little bet began?"

Reluctant to tell him that I had forgotten our bet entirely, I smiled enigmatically. "This is one of those 'If I told you, I'd have to kill you' situations." Honestly, the best I could come up with was probably worse than Eric's putrid suggestions.

"Yeah, there are a lot of those with you," he muttered almost unintelligibly. Ugh. Boys. Didn't he realize that I was in a good mood?

My eyes narrowed. "What was that, Simon?"

He had the nerve to smile innocently. "Nothing." He might have changed a lot since he became a vampire, but he still sucked at lying.

Probably because he had a tell.

"Uh-huh." I said disbelievingly. "Did you know that when you lie, you look down and to the left?"

He held a hand to his heart as if he was injured. "Lie? Why would I lie to you, Iz?" The comic effect was ruined by the fact that he looked down and to the left again. Oh so obvious. Inwardly, I grinned. I could have some fun with this.

"Hey, Simon?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you like porn?"

His face went beet red and he spluttered out something that sounded like gibberish.

"What was that?" I asked, my expression deadpan. "I didn't hear you."

"I… um…"

Just then, Alec burst into the room. He stopped abruptly, not even making it through the door as he noticed the color of Simon's face and my Cheshire cat grin.

"Sorry to, uh, interrupt." He shifted uncomfortably.

Simon stared fixedly at some spot on the floor and blushed even harder. _Interesting_, I thought. My favorite (and only_)_ vampire could still blush despite the fact that the only blood running through his veins originally belonged to someone else.

Alec's eye shifted from Simon to me and back again, almost like he was watching a tennis match, before he continued, "I'm not sure what's going on here, but whatever it is, it will have to wait." I looked up then. "We're about to have our hands full with other things."

"What's the problem?" Simon asked. The faint pink flush was fading from his cheeks, but his voice was still a little higher than normal.

"Demons." Alec looked at me expectantly. I met his eye with a faint, facsimile of a grin. "Luke called, he says they got one of his wolves."

Simon's head jerked up suddenly and I saw the question in his eyes before he said it aloud. And just like that, my bad mood was back. I knew that he was worried for his stupid little werewolf friend. "Who?" he demanded.

"Not Maia," Alec assured him. "Mike… Mick… Something like that."

The news caused Simon to visibly relax, but it had the opposite effect on me. I would never wish harm on Maia, but in that moment, I was wishing plenty of harm on my "boyfriend".

"I'll go get Clary and Jace." I volunteered. I had to get out of here soon or something was going to hit the fan. And it surely wasn't going to be shit.

**Does anyone have anything in particular they'd like to see in this story? Or anything you're tired of seeing? I've got a few ideas, but I'm still not sure where this is going. So, suggestions = love and regular updates. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Okay, I'm feeling a little hurt right now. Over a hundred people read this chapter over the past week. Are you seriously telling me only six of you liked it enough to take less than a minute to send me a review? You're lucky that I love you guys or I might just decide to be one of those grumpy people who demands reviews before I update.**

** Oh and sorry that scenes from Begging for Mercy keep appearing in here, but Isabelle's in like half of that story and this one is taking place at approximately the same time. (This is Chapters 4 and 5 of that story.)**

As it turned out, Clary and Jace were already suited up and ready to go. I found them wrestling on the floor in one of the practice rooms. From my position by the door, it was hard to tell whether they were kissing or fighting. Knowing Jace, it probably didn't matter.

After they managed to disentangle themselves from each other, they started to follow me down the hall. The three of us were intercepted by Simon before we even made it halfway. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, my brother burst through the door wearing a brooding scowl. "Bad news," Alec announced.

"Haven't we already gotten bad news?" asked Simon. He moved closer to me as he spoke, invading my personal space.

"Well, worse news." Alec admitted.

I nudged Simon with my elbow and frowned. "Go away," I whispered. "I'm trying to concentrate."

"But I always look so much better when I'm standing next to you." He told me with mock-innocence and more than a little sarcasm. He pressed even closer just to annoy me.

"That's so true," I informed him superciliously. "Wish I could say the same."

He pretended to look hurt and I tried not to grin. Thinking about it, I realized that we actually made quite the couple. Mostly because Simon's looks had improved with his change. We both had dark hair that provided a stark contrast against our lighter skin. His new leather jackets and expensive boots (my influence) complimented my dresses and heels well.

"You know," he whispered in my ear, seemingly unmoved by my barbed comment. "Whenever we're in the same room, you're always the person I stand closest to."

I felt the corners of my mouth turn up in a reluctant grin. While always sarcastic and witty, Simon could also be surprisingly sweet at times. It was enough to make me want to...

My thoughts trailed off as I realized Jace was giving me a funny look. Apparently, whatever Alec had just said wasn't something to smile about. I tuned in belatedly and managed to catch the last little bit. "-one of these demons is a Greater Demon."

Did he just say Greater Demon? I mouthed at Jace. The blonde boy nodded.

Oh. No wonder he was looking at me like I was insane. If anything should elicit a reaction, it was Greater Demons.

However, Greater Demons weren't very common. In all our years of hunting, we had only come in contact with one, and even then it was purely accidental. So suffice it to say that upon hearing Alec's words, I was taken aback. If it wasn't my brother talking, I probably would have laughed.

Surely he was screwing with us?

"What did you say?" I demanded. "I must have heard you wrong."

"You heard me right," Alec replied. "There's a Greater Demon in Manhattan."

Greater Demons were a little more than worse news. More like the most dangerous thing on the face of the planet. And a few other planets too, for that matter.

Not that I was complaining. I had been itching for a good fight for days now.

There was a round of muttered expletives and unhappy looks as the room broke out in chatter. Suddenly, everyone had something to say. A certain tawny-eyed blonde was especially vocal, demanding to know how Magnus (who had apparently been called to the crime scene) had gotten this news and if his Intel was reliable.

"Is that all?" He queried. "Does he have any proof?"As usual, he had picked the worst time to be difficult. A glance around our circle of fighters proved that everyone else was just as distracted as Jace.

"What other proof do we need?" Alec countered. "If it smells like a Greater Demon, there's not much else it could be."

Jace had to concede this point, but he insisted on adding, "But that still doesn't mean-"

The oblivious boys continued to argue the point into the ground. They didn't seem to realize that every moment they spent arguing was another one wasted. We needed to get back on track. So, as the self-appointed voice of reason for this little group, I was forced to take measures in to my own hands.

"Guys stop arguing!" I shouted. "You're wasting valuable time. While you're arguing, those demons could be out there murdering people!"

This prompted some action. Jace went back to preparing the weapons while Alec drew runes for protection and speed on the arms of everyone but Simon.

By the time we finally got to Freaky Pete's, the bar where the Luke's wolf had been murdered, the demons were nowhere to be found. The bar was in the middle of town, in an area known for housing members of the Downworlder population. The building itself looked as if it had seen better days, as did the three figures who awaited our arrival in the parking lot. Luke and Magnus both looked pretty grim.

Standing between them was a girl I recognized as Maia Roberts. She was one of Luke's pack, a lycanthrope about our age who just so happened to be Simon's _ex_-girlfriend. Or so he repeatedly assured me.

Simon had the nerve to smile at her.

She smiled back. I couldn't help the predatory way my body tensed up, but I did manage to keep my face neutral. The dark-haired boy beside me was mine and he knew it. Almost instinctively, I pressed closer to him as we walked. He and I both knew that it was my way of reminding him that if he didn't stay away from her, some very nasty things were going to go down.

All possessive thoughts of Simon disappeared when I caught sight of the wretched, mangled body of the teenage werewolf. The jolting sight reminded me why we were here. It wasn't for Simon, Maia, or even me. It was for this werewolf and justice that he and others like him deserved.

Though the details of the case were relatively cut and dry, we soon found that both the motive and the whereabouts of the demons involved were currently undetermined. Maia had been the one to find the sixteen year old werewolf on the ground before us. He—Nick, I think was his name— was the only victim, and the demons had simply murdered him in the parking lot and scattered upon Maia's exit from the building.

"There's one thing I don't get." Simon spoke up after Maia finished telling her story. "What would a Greater Demon want with a sixteen-year-old werewolf?"

"That," put in Magnus, "Is a very good question."

No one spoke. It was a question that not a single one of us knew how to answer. What _would_ a Greater Demon want with a Downworlder like any other?

One thing was for sure. If we wasted our time here all night, we would never know.

"We need to get going if we're going to catch these demons," I suggested. Rearing back, I cracked my whip one good time before coiling it up again. With a wicked grin, I added, "And we _will _catch them."

I was looking forward to it.

We wasted a bit more time saying goodbyes before proceeding to wander around deserted streets of Manhattan. In theory, the idea was that they were sure to be lurking nearby. Between our sensors, general knowledge of the area, and the stench that was produced by Greater Demons, we believed that they would be relatively easy to find. Someone, however, didn't seem to factor in the fact that Edilion demons—those who could shift into other shapes— we quite clever sometimes. And Greater Demons were even more intelligent.

After an interminable wait, we finally stumbled onto an interesting situation.

We had been trailing the slowly increasing smell that was a mix of rotten eggs, sulfur, and who knew what else until finally we turned down yet another empty road only to find that it wasn't quite as deserted as it originally appeared.

In the dark of the night, I counted seven boys with ages that appeared to range from adolescent to early twenties. Six of them were surrounding the smallest one and it looked like they were trying to pick a fight. They were so absorbed by their task that they hadn't noticed the five of us moved stealthily through the darkness.

I found it puzzling that the Greater Demon smell was undoubtedly emanating from this very area and yet there was no Greater Demon to be found. Obviously, one of the seven "boys" in front of us was our culprit and the others his minions.

The sensor in Alec's hand went suddenly went crazy and confirmed my suspicions.

The noise caught the attention of the demons that appeared to notice us for the first time. Six of the seven human-looking creatures blocked our path.

"We were waiting for you, Shadowhunters, Vampire," the one who seemed to be the leader of the group said. He was slightly taller than the rest, and they were all taller than any normal human should be. "Now the fight may begin."

Before he was even finished speaking, he lunged forward to attack.

He meant to surprise me, but I was ready for it. My whip slithered forward with lightning speed. With inhuman reflexes, the demon dodged before it even came down. Inwardly, I cursed. "Oh, so that's how you want to play it, huh?" I growled.

The demon smiled, showing a row of rotten fangs that I supposed were meant to resemble teeth. I resisted the urge to shiver. Wouldn't want those things sinking into my arm.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the other demons spread out to take on each member of our group. Simon, Clary, and Jace were throwing blades left and right, fighting in a group. Alec, on the other hand, was locked in his own private battle similar to mine.

The demon I was fighting leapt forward abruptly. He slashed at my face with a set of wicked sharp claws that had sprouted from nowhere. Dancing out of the way, I cracked my whip again. This time, it struck the twisted creature on the right shoulder, digging deep and leaving a raised welt. Black blood dripped from the wound and he let out a hiss like a snake.

I couldn't help it. I laughed out loud.

"Already ready to drop?" I taunted. For a leader, this demon was entirely too weak.

The next flick of my whip caught him on the neck and opened a gash there. He darted away and feinted to the left before slashing at me with his claws again. My throwing knife was out of its sheath before the frenzied monster could blink and buried in its chest before it even realized it was dead. My face lit up in a smile of victory as I reveled in the heady feeling of hearing my blade hit home. I felt like celebrating, but there wasn't time to gloat just yet.

Surging forward to pull the dagger from the torn sinews of this creature's body, I knelt down to slit its throat for good measure.

Impetuously, I jumped to my feet and threw myself back into the fray.

Alec and I teamed up to fight his demon which had procured actual knives instead of claws. The knives looked like crude imitations of our own, but I soon found out they were just as sharp. My hair streamed behind me as I goaded the human-like brute with the lick of my whip. Meanwhile, Alec worked on moving in close to beat it over the head with his staff. Dividing its attention between the two us, the creature had a difficult time concentrating. I caught it completely by surprise as I whipped out my largest knife to slash its throat.

Together, Alec and I watched the inter-dimensional parasite disintegrate.

We turned to find all of the demons dispatched except for the "child" that the others had been picking on. Clary was having a discussion with the suspiciously innocent creature, as if he were nothing more than an actual boy.

Senseless girl. Every time I thought we were getting close, she turned around and did something stupid like this.

"What's this?" Simon asked, joining the circle of Shadowhunters staring dubiously at the little demon.

"Don't talk to it," Jace hissed. I sighed with relief. Thank God someone here besides me had some sense. Though the thing may have been small, it had to be dangerous. The lingering stench that surrounded Greater Demons was still present, inexplicably pointing to the conclusion that this very being was the Greater Demon we were after.

"What's your name?" Clary asked rashly.

"Bobby," was the creature's reply.

I rolled my eyes.

"I don't get it," I spoke with mock-innocence, pretending I didn't notice the devil in disguise standing right in front of me. "We smelled a Greater Demon. None of those were Greater Demons, where is it?"

"By the Angel, it's right there!" Jace insisted. He pointed at the boy. Simon, Alec, and Clary all looked at him like he was crazy.

The little boy only laughed at the accusation, instantly gaining everyone's attention. "This is quite sad, really," he said, his voice no longer that of a little boy. "What Shadowhunters are coming to, these days. But it's all the better for my kind."

"What?" Clary sounded surprised. We all began to back away from him, wariness creeping into everyone's stance.

The Greater Demon let out another haunting laugh and explained slowly, as if we were children, "The werewolves have something I want, Shadowhunters, and I would appreciate it if you would convince them to give it back."

"And why would we do that?" Jace demanded.

Okay, I mentally corrected my admission from earlier; I was the _only_ person in this entire group with a speck of sense.

The Greater Demon began to change shape, shifting from the form of the small human boy. Its face elongated, and its limbs shrunk until its body somewhat resembled a giant serpent. The markings made it look like a viper, but it still had a humanoid face with jagged glass-sharp fangs. Long horns began to grow from its head, and scales covered its body.

"Because I can make your life a living nightmare if you don't."

The first Greater Demon we had met was hideous; it was all rotten with age-old bones protruding from the skin. This one was equally terrifying, but it had a sort of demented beauty about it. The serpentine face didn't go with the horns or human-like features, but it looked sleek and intimidating.

It was beauty and horror intertwined into one single being.

I tossed my long hair over my shoulders and gripped my whip with a deadly smile. The arrogant creature would soon find out that I could be intimidating too.

"Really?" Jace asked idiotically, as if he thought that taunting Greater Demons was the epitome of fun. And they said _I _didn't know the definition of that word. "And how will you be able to that if we kill you?"

"You're naïve enough to believe you can kill me, boy? I am Botis, commander of sixty legions of demons. You can't defeat me, _child."_ He said the last word with true hatred, implying that we as mere mortals— and children at that— couldn't dream of laying a hand on him. Well, there he was wrong. We could do more than lay a hand on him.

We were going to stab him until his scaly body was chopped up into tiny little demon pieces. Then, we'd serve him up on a platter to the Clave and reap the rewards that would follow.

"I could defeat you with one wave of my hand," he said. "But I won't. And in return, you will convince the werewolves to return my possession."

Jace, being Jace, had to go and taunt him again. "If you're so high and mighty, why can't you do it yourself?" he demanded.

The demon stared him down coldly and snapped, "I grow tired of your insolence, mortal." Waving a hand, he watched indifferently as Jace crumpled to the ground. "Now," Botis continued, as if Jace had never spoken in the first place. "Where were we?"

I started to run to Jace but froze mid-movement, realizing that the seconds it took me to move to him might be the vital few in which the demon decided to attack.

Fortunately, from where I stood, I could tell that he was still breathing. I could see his chest rise and fall. I knew Clary could too, but that didn't stop her from blindly rushing to his side to check on him. "What did you do to him?" She demanded angrily.

The demon eyed her coldly. "The same thing I will do to you, if you do not follow my orders."

Then, Clary had to go and hop on the idiot train while there was still room. "Bring him back," she ordered the Greater Demon.

Botis only laughed. "If you do as I ask, I will consider it." Though it sounded like a question, the statement was undoubtedly an order.

"What _is _this object of great power?" I asked, speaking up for the first time.

The scales on its body glowed a sickly yellow-green color, almost iridescent in the lamplight. Its body was as thick and as long as a human's. I was more than a little creeped out, but I held my ground. "You have no need of that knowledge, mortal." Botis informed me.

Almost as if Jace had left his body and entered hers, Clary demanded, "And _why _would we get it for you?"

Botis replied by threatening Jace."If you don't," he told her, "Your unconscious friend will never see the light of day again."

Our resident redhead caved almost immediately. "Okay," she sighed.

"What? Clary, no!" Simon, Alec, and I all spoke at once. We obviously weren't giving the demon what it wanted, even if we didn't know what that was.

"You would do well to learn from this one," The Greater Demon said as a parting remark. "I expect to have the item in my possession within the week." Seconds later, the snake-like demon vanished and the first strains of sunlight began to appear.

"Clary!" Alec all but shouted the moment the demon was gone. "Why did you tell that _thing _we would do what it wanted?"

We all waited expectantly for her defense. And were more than a little surprised when it came. "To make it leave!" she explained, as if it were obvious.

"Well, we're obviously not giving it what it wants… whatever that is," I insisted in a tone that dared her to say otherwise.

"_I_ know that, and _you_ know that. But the Greater Demon doesn't." She pointed out. We all went silent, but Clary didn't even bother to add anything. She was too busy staring at her boyfriend. "What are we going to do about Jace?" She asked. I could have sworn there was a tear or two in her eyes.

Simon was quick to reassure her while Alec and I dropped down to check on the only one of us we had ever believed was invulnerable. He was out cold but perfectly healthy.

Only Jace, I sighed inwardly, could get into a mess this big and still be perfectly fine. 

The rest of our night—or rather, the start of our morning—was just as eventful as the beginning. Getting Jace back to the institute wasn't an easy job, but we managed. In no time, we had him tucked into a bed in the infirmary with Magnus playing nurse. Alec, of course, elected to stay with his boyfriend and his _parabatai._

This left the rest of us to go report back to the Children of the Moon by ourselves. As if we hadn't had enough of an ordeal already.

The second we drove up to the bar that served as headquarters to Luke's pack, Simon, too, decided to bail. "Sorry," he announced unceremoniously, "But I've got to get home before my mom realizes I'm not there." Alarm bells flashed in my mind, but I couldn't quite place my finger on the reason.

I didn't even have time to mull over the problem, because, as Clary and I stepped into the bar, we found the place teeming with people. Unlike the two of us, they all looked wide awake. You'd think no one around here had ever heard of sleep.

Maia was the first one to catch sight of us.

"Hey, Maia." Clary greeted her warmly. I smiled too. Without my idiot boyfriend here to muck things up, I actually enjoyed talking to the energetic, bi-racial girl. She was clever and funny. Not exactly what one would typically expect from a lycanthrope.

"Hey, Clary and Izzy." She smiled back but it was a weak, tired smile. "Did you get those demons?" Noticing our glum expressions, she grimaced. "That bad, huh?"

She didn't know the half of it.

I glossed over the event by telling her only that one of the demons knocked Jace unconscious. Though our leaders had yet to be informed of the events that had transpired, the rest was official Clave business nonetheless. I was bound to keep the knowledge secret unless its distribution would aid the case.

"Did you find out why it attacked Nick?" Maia wanted to know. She looked positively exhausted and for the first time that night I realize that Nick was probably a close friend of hers.

I shook my head. "Can you tell us where to find Luke?"

"Sure," she agreed. "He's in the back. I'll take you to him."

Luke was behind the bar in one of the back rooms deep in a discussion with another werewolf. They stopped talking abruptly when we entered and after seeing that it was us, Luke dismissed the older man immediately. Our debriefing took minutes, but after we had finished, we realized that Luke knew no more about this case than any of us.

The more I thought about it, the more the whole deal with the "missing object" started to bother me. It was like an itch that I couldn't scratch, the piece of the puzzle we needed to make the others fit together.

"Did you find anything on the body?" I questioned Luke.

He shook his head. "There was nothing unusual," he explained. "Nothing that would cause a demon to be after the kid. Nick, the wolf who got killed, was going home when it happened. All we found on the body was his wallet, his phone. Things like that. Oh, we also found a ring with pictures of Disney characters, but that's not really something a demon would be after."

"A Disney ring? What was a teenage boy doing with a Disney ring in his pocket?" I asked. That sounded vaguely suspicious, but not in a way that would involve demons.

"He had a little sister," Luke explained. "He was always looking for things like that to bring home to her." Luke offered us the ring to use as evidence, saying that the poor kid had no need of it anymore.

Clary took it solemnly.

The token was symbolic, the story heart-rending, but I still couldn't keep my frustration at bay. After a full night without a bit of sleep, we were no closer to solving this than we were in the beginning.

"We need to find out what the demon wants soon," Clary murmured. "Before…" The words stuck in her throat, but I knew exactly what she was talking about.

I met her eyes and offered a reassuring hand. Right now, she needed hope.

"It's okay, Clary." I assured her. "We'll fix him." Even if I wasn't certain that my words were true, I believed in us. If anyone could save him, it would be this band of teenage misfits.

Okay, so one of us was comatose. Another was barely five feet tall. The third had never killed a demon in his life. And then, of course, there was me. The pregnant seventeen year-old. We were definitely an odd bunch, but we had more connections than most adults and a track record that spoke for itself.

As we left the bar, the sun was rising to its full glory, filling the morning sky with light. After the endless gloom of the night, day had come with a vengeance. Trying to ignore it, I settled down onto my plush mattress, shoes kicked off, willing myself to sleep. But sleep wouldn't come. Thought after thought, problem after problem, pulsed through my mind. My brain was full of crazy images, strange issues, everything I'd had to deal with lately.

I hadn't had a good night's sleep in days, probably weeks. Lying in bed like this was doing nothing to help. I kept seeing Jace collapse on the ground. Kept seeing Simon's mom's face as she told me that she didn't have a son. Kept seeing my own horrified reflection in the mirror on that fateful night.

I sat up, no longer able to bear the barrage of images. Barefoot, I padded out into the corridor. I didn't realize where my feet were taking me until I stood in the doorway of the infirmary.

Jace lay motionless on a simple white cot, stripped of his weapons and battle gear until he wore only a simple white shirt and his black fighting pants. His chest moved with the soft rise and fall of breath, and if I didn't know better, I would think that he was simply asleep. Clary sat in a chair beside him. As I watched, she leaned over his still body with a look of absolute adoration. She brushed a few of his golden curls out of his face and smiled at some private memory.

Trying to ignore the surprising twinge I felt in the pit of my stomach at the soft look on her face, I spoke up in the silence of the room, "He looks so peaceful," I murmured just loud enough for her to hear.

My voice startled her. She obviously hadn't realized there was anyone else in the room. "He does, doesn't he?" She sighed. "Kind of like an angel."

Normally, I would make a snippy remark about how Jace could never be an angel. Instead, I simply told her, "You know, they say when people are in comas, they can hear what's going on around them."

"We need to focus on getting him better and finding out what the demon wants," She answered.

I nodded and twirled a strand of dark hair around my finger absently.

"Just remember, Clary." I told her seriously. "We _are _going to find a way to heal him."

She inclined her head in agreement and the two of us took one more long look at his comatose body. Little did we know, the next morning he would be alive and kicking like nothing ever happened.

**I apologize for any bad language, but the Isabelle in my head just insists that she should be allowed to express any and all frustration by cussing if she's not allowed to beat said frustration to a pulp. I'm trying to resist, but she's wearing me down.**

**Sooooo...what do you think? Too long? Kinda weird? Absolutely fantastic? (Personally, I'm hoping you pick the last option.)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello, lovely readers and reviewers. :) Somebody recently reminded me that I haven't clarified the setting of this fic. For those of you who are confused, it takes place about a year after City of Glass as if the last two books never happened.**

"I just don't understand what went wrong." Magnus sighed from his seat next to Alec at the kitchen table.

I couldn't believe he was still going on about that spell from weeks ago. Across the room, I shrugged. "Something about the spell was off and it didn't quite work. Weirder things have happened."

"Really?" Magnus argued. (Because God forbid Magnus the magnificent make a mistake.) "I can't think of any."

I politely refrained from listing a few examples. Such as the covert but comical way I had caught him trying to sneak out of the Institute undetected in the early hours of the morning. Or you know, the fact that the spell had malfunctioned because I was pregnant and not sick—though sometimes the two were arguably the same thing. If that wasn't strange enough, I could always top it all off with the fact that the father just so happened to be a seventeen year old vampire.

I envied Magnus for the belief that the strangest thing in this world was a failed spell. Because I was sitting here watching the world as I knew it fade away.

"Does it really matter?" I asked, eager to change the subject. "Either way I'm fine," I lied.

More to distract them than anything, I set two plates heaped high with pancakes on the table.

The sparkly warlock ignored his lovely, if slightly burnt, plate of pancakes. Pursing his lips, he studied me for a moment. I shifted uncomfortably. It was hard to keep the aloof façade I always wore firmly in place when he was staring at me so intently that it felt as if he could read my mind.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm fine?" I complained. Neither of them said a word. "Fine," I sighed. "Keep staring. Maybe if you do it long enough, I'll do a trick."

Magnus' searching gaze turned skeptical and inwardly, I let out a sigh of relief. If he was going to say something snarky, then he must not have noticed that anything was wrong. "For some reason, I doubt that." He informed me. "Maryse and Robert didn't do a very good job of house training you."

I scowled at him.

"Hey, at least she's housebroken." Alec spoke up with a small smile.

Magnus's lips turned up in a lazy half-smirk. "They were probably too busy trying to teach Jace proper manners to even think about training Izzy."

"Yes, well, they failed with Jace." I informed no one in particular. "Epically."

Thinking about Jace made my stomach start to roil again. He was still out cold and showing no signs of waking up. I knew deep down that he was practically invulnerable, but that was no comfort when he was lying unconscious in the infirmary.

Not to mention my _other_ issues.

Magnus and Alec were chatting away obliviously. Neither had any idea what was going on. By now, I'd had almost three weeks time to get adjusted to thought that I was… pregnant. It hurt to even think that word, but I was going to have to get used to it. Even worse, I was going to have to tell someone. _Everyone_. Inwardly, I groaned.

My life was over.

Just the thought of having to share my "happy news" made me the exact opposite of happy.

"Shut up and eat your pancakes." I ordered the two of them grumpily. Neither one had so much as touched the lovely breakfast I cooked especially for them.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized I was just going to have to man up—despite the fact that my purple sundress and brown suede open-toed cut-out pumps (courtesy of Michael Kors) indicated that I was not, in fact, a man—and tell them.

…But not _quite _yet.

"These are pancakes?" Magnus asked. "I thought they were some sort of experimental exploding bricks to throw at demons."

"Of course not." I scoffed. "What good would that do?"

Magnus apparently had no reply for that. His cat-like eyes followed my movements as I busied myself at the stove cooking another course to go with it. "What are you making now?" He asked.

I glanced down at what was clearly a piece of sausage. Or maybe it was bacon. …I wasn't sure. Then, I narrowed my eyes at him, unsure if he was actually curious or just being nasty. "Food." I answered decisively. "And you're going to eat it."

Magnus lifted one perfectly plucked brow. "Why ever would I do that?" He inquired.

"Because if you don't, my parents might inadvertently discover that I caught you trying to sneak out of my brother's room at four in the morning."

"Now you're just being nasty." Magnus smirked.

"A bad habit I developed from spending too much time in your presence." I retorted flipping my long, black locks out of the way so I could lean forward to heat up the stove.

"No, Isabelle dearest," The warlock corrected with a smug smile. "If you had spent too much time in my presence, the correct adjective would more likely be naughty."

Alec almost choked on his coffee. Apparently the thought of his warlock lover teaching his sister how to be naughty was not a pleasant one.

That, I could honestly say, was a sentiment we shared. I frowned at the warlock. "Did you ever think maybe I don't like you?" I quipped.

"Yes, that did cross my mind." Magnus grinned. "But then I remembered that you spend your free time consorting with vampires and werewolves, so your standards are probably pretty low." He let out a low chuckle at his own joke and added, "Plus, I'm dating your brother. You have to like me."

I smiled innocently back. "Guess what?"

"What?"

"Shut up."

My retort only made Magnus's smile wider. "Nasty, nasty," he smirked. But I noticed he did eat his pancakes.

Alec rolled his eyes. "I'm just glad you didn't say naughty this time."

An amused snort sounded from the doorway. "I think I picked the wrong time to enter this conversation," said Simon.

I looked up to find him standing in the doorway looking all too comfortable there. He was outfitted in jeans, engineer boots, and one of his typical T-shirts. This one was a worn blue tee that said 'Does your family have a zombie infestation plan?' across the front. Depicted on the shirt was a house filled with dead stick figures and what was presumably an escaping zombie.

"Typically," I said, lapsing into Shadowhunter lecture-mode. "Zombies are only found farther south—"

"Where the _voudun _priests are," Simon finished irritably. "Yes, I know. I bought this shirt before I knew zombies actually existed though. Now it's just…"

"Weird?" I suggested.

"Ironic." Alec supplied.

Ignoring me, Simon acknowledged Alec's assessment with a nod. He and Magnus greeted each other with nods as well in that way that guys think is badass but is actually only extremely annoying.

"Do you want bacon?" I asked cheerfully. I held up the plate of meat fresh off of the skillet.

"Just because I'm a vampire doesn't mean I stopped being a vegetarian, Isabelle." Simon reminded me. "I'll take some coffee. Black, please."

"That's right." I rolled my eyes. "Coffee's good for you. Drink it so you can be five foot even for the rest of your life like Clary."

"Considering the fact that I'm already five ten," Simon said wryly, "I think I'll risk it."

Over the next few days, we were going to have to do a lot of research to find out how to wake Jace. Not to mention uncovering the mysterious item the Greater Demon had demanded we procure. If we needed information a year ago, we simply would have called on Hodge. Now, however, we had only ourselves to rely on and research had never particularly been my strong point. Or Jace's for that matter— not that it really made a difference while he was unconscious.

So I had called on my handy dandy nerd. (Or geek, as he preferred to be called.)

"Are you ready to get started?" I asked him after he had downed two cups of black coffee.

"Almost." He answered. "Hey, have any of you guys seen Clary? I, um, went to her house earlier, but she wasn't there."

Of course he went to see Clary first. He always went to see Clary first. "She's here." I told him, making a vague motion in the direction of nothing in particular. "Somewhere."

"I'll just go see how she's doing before we get started." Simon pushed back his chair and got up from the table.

"I'll go with you," I volunteered immediately.

"As much as I'd love to join you on your quest for the Holy Grail," Magnus announced, pushing his empty (empty!) plate of pancakes away from him, "I've got some business that needs tending." He kissed Alec on the cheek and made a quick departure.

"I guess I'll go with you guys then." Alec spoke up, rising to his feet.

"We're off to see the Wizard, then?" Simon asked.

He was looking at me expectantly. I frowned. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Simon mumbled something that sounded like "With new-and-improved badass Dorothy," but I couldn't be sure. He was too busy laughing at his own private joke to clarify.

"Let's go," I tugged on his arm, pulling him out of the room and down the hall.

Our search for Clary lasted only minutes. She was, unsurprisingly, in the infirmary. With Jace. Exactly where I had left her the night before.

"Hey, Isabelle!" Alec called, rounding the corner and seeing the open door. "I think she's in here." He peered around the door into the room. And his mouth dropped abruptly.

Coming up behind him, I gave him a playful shove to get him to move. Then my eyes landed on the cause of his astonishment. There, on the crisp white sheets of the infirmary cot, lay the one and only blonde Lightwood. In and of itself, that fact was no surprise. The shock came upon the realization that he was _awake._

"JACE!" I screeched, running to hug him.

"Nice to see you too, Izzy." He told me, his expression slightly wary. Of course that may have been because my arms were locked around him in a death grip of a hug.

I couldn't believe it. He looked fine, better than ever actually. His blonde curls framed a flawless expanse of skin and bright, clear tawny eyes. He had no dark circles under them like the rest of us. It was as if last night's battle and the problems that ensued had never even happened for him.

I knew it. Clary must have had one of her visions where she created a new Mark that did the impossible.

"What did you do?" I asked her eagerly. "Did you make a new rune to wake him up?"

"Um, no." Clary tugged at one of her bright red curls uncomfortably.

"Actually," Jace said. He was grinning that stupid, annoying, insufferable grin that I had never loved more. "I woke myself up."

Somewhere behind me, Alec snorted.

Jace assumed an injured air. "What?" he asked.

"You woke yourself up?" Alec, ever the logical one, proceeded to point out, "Jace, you were in a _coma. _You can't just wake yourself up from that."

"_I_ can do it," Jace said haughtily. "And I don't get why I have to stay in the infirmary. I'm totally fine."

"Don't make me say it again," Alec told him. "You were in a _coma_."

"But I'm fine now," Jace protested.

I relinquished my hold on him with a smile. His protests sounded exactly like mine had earlier this morning and they were getting him just as far. It was undeniable, though, how well he looked. Especially in comparison with the rest of us.

"You know, Jace," Simon spoke up for the first time, "You're acting kind of butch. They say that guys who act like that are just trying to—"

"Cover up the fact that they're gay?" Jace interrupted.

I gave him a disapproving frown. Sexuality was kind of a sore subject in the Lightwood family, as Jace knew well.

Simon shot Alec an apologetic look. The boy had tried unsuccessfully for years to cover up the fact that he was gay. Until Clary came along, Jace and I were the only ones who knew his secret. "No," Simon corrected. "I was going to say that it means you're trying to make up for your lack of… you know, _size._"

Jace snorted a laugh. "I don't think so, idiot bloodsucker. I chose the nickname Baron Hotschaft Von _Huge_nstein for a reason." He practically oozed masculinity. Of course Jace would be…

"Okay, totally bad mental picture Jace," I grimaced. This was my brother we were talking about. "I think I'm scarred for life."

"Not my fault," Jace held up his hands in mock innocence. "Your boyfriend brought it up." Of course, Simon would have no problem bringing a subject like that up. He certainly wasn't lacking in the size department either.

"And what's he doing here, anyway?"

I opened my mouth to tell him exactly what Simon was doing here, but before I could, Simon himself answered. "_I _was doing something beneficial," he griped. "Unlike some pompous…"

By the by, someone was grumpy today.

"_Simon_," Clary warned. Turning to the rest of us, she added, "I didn't finish telling Jace what happened."

I thought back to the beginning of the night, when we had been out to kill a few relatively harmless demons at Pandemonium. It felt like days ago. Thinking back, Jace had only been out for a surprisingly short amount of time. "There's not much to tell, really," I told him. "You went comatose, the demon told us to get its 'possession' back from the werewolves, and Luke had no idea what he wanted."

"Possession?" Jace asked. He had an insatiable curiosity, a desire for answers that rivaled mine. "What did it want?"

"It wouldn't tell us."

"So," Jace started. His usual bored expression was in full force today, but I could see his evident interest peeking through the façade. "Let me see if I've got this straight. Basically, we've got to stop the demon, figure out what it's after, find the thing, and find out why it wanted the thing in the first place?"

I nodded. "Basically, yeah."

"And how long do we have to do this?" he inquired.

"Less than a week."

"A _week_?" Jace looked decidedly interested now. "That would be hard to do in a _month_. Even for me, and we all know how awesome I am. Do we have any idea what it is? Like a clue or anything?"

"That's why I'm here," Simon put in. "I was researching this stuff. And in the institute's library, I found only three objects besides the Mortal Instruments powerful enough for Greater Demons to fight over."

I hadn't realized he had already started his research. He must have been in the Institute for a while before he came to find us. Belatedly, I noticed the pile of notes he held clutched in his hand.

"And they are….?"

"A cup, not unlike the Mortal Cup. It lets the holder have control over demons. And yes, only demons. It can bind them." He looked up to make sure we were still listening before he continued. "The second one is a book full of dark spells that can summon demons and do all sorts of evil things. It's like all the dark books in the world combined. And the last one is a ring. The wearer controls the minds of anything. Demons, humans, downworlders, shadowhunters."

"And do we know the whereabouts of any of these items?" Clary asked.

"The cup is missing. The book is…" He checked his notes. "Missing. And for the ring, it says whereabouts unknown. So, I'd say that's missing too."

"So we have to figure out which one of these items the demon is after," Jace said thoughtfully. "It couldn't have been something the dead werewolf had, or they would have taken it off of him, so what could it be?"

"That," Clary chimed in, "Is a very good question."

And tomorrow, we soon decided, was an excellent time to begin.

In the meantime, Simon was lying across my bed, his shoes hastily discarded on the floor and his head propped up on my favorite pink pillow. He was staring at Church pensively. The cat was stretched out on his back across my lap with all four paws in the air. A low, satisfied purr rumbled from his throat as I scratched his belly.

"What is it?"

Simon jumped a little, almost as if he'd forgotten I was in the room. "Nothing." He assured me, meeting my onyx eyes with his equally dark ones. As he reclined on my bed, a little of his messy brown hair parted across his forehead and I could just make out his Mark. It was so much a part of him now that I sometimes forgot that it was there.

"Are you sure?" I asked. As much as I hated this whole sharing business, I had to admit that now would be the perfect time to tell him. Maybe if I could just get him to open up, I'd be able to…"Because you know, I'm always here for you."

He smiled and one side of his mouth lifted before the other in that way that always made my breath catch in my throat.

"We're not dating though!" I hastily assured him. The words came out before I could stop them, a reminder of days past when I wanted nothing more than a good time from him. Now, however, things were different.

His smile turned skeptical. "We're not?"

"Okay…" I sighed. "Maybe a little."

"A little?" Simon repeated.

I scowled at him. "What are you, a parrot?" I could tell he was about to make some annoyingly clever sarcastic repartee, so I cut him off before he could. "Fine. We're dating. Happy?"

"Ecstatic."

"Oh, shut up."

"What a sweet, elegant girlfriend I've picked for myself." His words were dripping with sarcasm, but the smile on his face tempered their sting. Within seconds, I found myself smiling back. "So, gorgeous girlfriend of mine, does this mean you'll finally go to one of my band rehearsals?"

"Only if you win our bet."

"Oh, I plan to," he sat up on the bed with a sneaky gleam in his eye. "I have experience with this band-naming thing."

"Good," I ran my fingers through Church's fur with a grin. "Because you're going to need it."

He laughed. It was a clean, crisp, reassuring sound. "Are you sure you're ready for this, Isabelle?" He teased. "Because words are like bullets, you can't take them back."

I rolled my eyes. "What would you know about bullets? You're not exactly Mr. Adventure."

"Sure I am," he countered. "How many other humans do you know who would follow their best friends into a world where people with angel blood work with vampires and werewolves to kill demons?"

There was really no disputing that.

"Mr. Adventure it is then," I conceded. "Actually, I'd rather you were Mr. Ninja Assassin, but a girl can't be too choosy in this boyfriend market."

"The Ninja Assassins," Simon laughed, still thinking about band names. "That has a nice ring to it."

"Surely you can do better than that." I chided.

"I can." He told me. "But I'd like to see you try."

"Fine." I tried to lift Church from my lap to get him out of the way. Suddenly catching sight—and scent—of Simon, he let out a loud yowl and scurried towards the door. Church had never particularly liked Simon. Even before he was a vampire.

"Well…" I started.

"I'm waiting."

I glared at him and went back to thinking. "Um…" This was harder than I thought.

"How about...?" I glanced down at my arms and caught sight of the rune-made scars covering them. Each was a mark permanently etched into my skin, a reminder of the trials and tribulations of life. "After Innocence?"

"Pretty good," Simon admitted. "I'll go with The Damned."

Of course he would. Between the Mark of Cain and his vampire state, he seemed to believe he was well and truly damned. And pretty soon, he was going to receive news that would probably make him feel even more so.

"Worlds Collide." I whispered. _Now_, that little voice at the back of my brain was suddenly insisting. _You should tell him _now.

"Benevolent Anarchy."

"Plastic Hearts."

Simon made a face.

"In case you hadn't noticed, Izzy," he said. "My band is made up completely of guys. _Straight_ guys_._ Well, sometimes I wonder about Kirk, but still… that's a little too chick."

Okay, I didn't care about this stupid competition anymore. "Simon, there's something I need to tell you." I blurted suddenly.

"Okay…" He looked vaguely uncomfortable. My outburst had been random to say the least. One sentence in and this was already sounding like one of those 'we need to talk' situations. And the Angel knew, those never turned out well. For anyone.

"There's something I need to-"

A sharp buzzing noise cut through the middle of my sentence as his phone went off. He pulled it out of his pocket and glanced down. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I thought he looked relieved.

"Simon…" I tried again, but the phone was already pressed to his ear.

I sighed and leaned back. So much for that opportune moment.

"Sorry, it's my mom." He mumbled, getting up to go out into the hallway."I've got to take this."

His mom? The same nagging alarm bells from the night before exploded in my head once again. The answer hit me suddenly. _His mom._ He said it was her, but Elaine Lewis wasn't calling. She had told me herself that she had kicked him out.

That meant he was _lying_ to me. _Again. _

I was stunned. The usual markers that gave him away were virtually nonexistent, and the tell I had noted earlier was nowhere to be found.

My Shadowhunter reflexes allowed me to be on my feet and out the door in a matter of seconds, but I was too late.

Simon was already gone.

I stood there in the hallway, my electrum whip pulsing from its place coiled around my arm and my face twisted into a scowl. The next time we met, Simon and I were going to have a long talk. I was going to tell him everything. And I meant _everything._

If it took every last drop of my will power and feminine wiles, he was going to return the favor.

**Sorry that this story is moving so slowly, but I'm trying to throw an actual plot in there with all this drama. Looks like it's finally starting to pick up though; Isabelle plans to tell Simon the truth. And this time, I promise, she'll actually go through with it. **

**Anyway, hope you liked it! Next chapter will be up within the week. **

**So... what'd you think?**


	11. Chapter 11

**Okay, I finally got around to reading City of Fallen Angels and City of Lost Souls. I didn't do it earlier because was afraid Cassandra Clare was going to screw up the perfect ending of City of Glass, but I feel obligated to admit that I was actually really impressed with the two latest books. Much better than my little fics lol. **

**This chapter has Izzy's confession and a little Malec for all those like me who enjoy that sort of thing…**

**Isabelle**

Death. Darkness. Screams. Whether they were my own or someone else's I couldn't tell. The sky was dark, the ebony sheen of night worsening the feeling of destruction. All around me, the air was vibrant with fraught emotions. Life was slowly slipping out of me like blood from an open wound.

Faces. Bodies. Alec, Max, and Jace all lay collapsed on the ground where they stood, their bodies falling face first onto the ground, onto the fine layer of dust that coated what felt like the entire world. Soon they were floating lifeless in a sea of despair. And I could do nothing but watch.

"Isabelle!"

My eyes snapped open.

"Shhhh," A calm voice soothed. "Izzy, it's okay."

The first thing I noticed was that I was lying in a bed that, while not my own, was decidedly familiar. The cool pillow beneath my cheek smelled faintly of laundry detergent and boy. It had to be Alec's, I decided. The second thing, a bit more startling than the first, was that the owner of said pillow was sitting on the bed beside me, his face inches away from mine.

I jerked backwards and cracked my head against the headboard. "Damn," I hissed, pressing my fingers to the tender spot. "What happened?"

"You were screaming." The concerned look on Alec's face was becoming all too familiar of late. He was so close that I could feel his heartbeat and one of his hands patted my back a little awkwardly.

A shiver ran through me as the alarming dream came rushing back. Snatches of darkness and lifeless faces flitted through my mind. Almost involuntarily, I pressed closer to Alec.

"Izzy?" My hair muffled the sound of his voice. "Are you okay?"

The warmth I felt in the circle of his arms wasn't enough to keep the events of the past month or so from invading my peace. Pulling away from him, I flopped back on the bed with a loud sigh and covered my eyes with a hand. "Nightmare." I sighed.

With my hand over my eyes, I couldn't see his face, but some sibling sense told me that he was still giving me that same worried look. "It was just a dream, Izzy. Everything's fine."

"No, it's not," I groaned.

"Then what's wrong?" He pressed. Alec was my big brother. Always had been, always would be. He was the one who stood by to protect us while Jace and I went out searching for the action and adventure of a fast-paced lifestyle. He knew the two of us better than we knew each other, probably better than we knew ourselves.

For instance, he knew that all the walls I built up were just glass on the outside.

And it was coming back to bite me in the butt now.

"Nothing." I pressed my face into his pillow. "Everything."

I couldn't sleep anymore. This was the first time it had culminated in a nightmare, and I figured the dream was purely stress-induced. But most of the time I just couldn't sleep.

I could practically hear Alec frowning. "_Isabelle_," he complained. "When did 'I'm okay' become a synonym for 'Of course not, please change the subject'?"

"Today."

"You're not funny." He was scowling now. "I know you hate the feeling, Isabelle, but you need me. And whether you realize it or not, I need you. Why can't you trust me?"

"I do." I insisted, peeking up at him to get a glimpse of his face. "Implicitly."

"Okay," he sighed again. "You've just been so distant lately. You look like the one piece of the world that's holding the whole damn thing up."

"Something's happened." I confessed, instinctively knowing exactly how much to tell him. "Something big."

"Bigger than a Greater Demon almost killing Jace?" He asked a little dryly.

I nodded.

His eyes went wide. I knew what he was thinking. What could possibly be bigger than almost losing our brother?

"I'm fine." I promised. This time it felt like maybe, just maybe, the words weren't a lie. "You just have to bear with me here. I've got some things to sort out before…"

"Before you tell me?" He finished for me.

"Yeah," I felt a reluctant grin cross my face. Alec was always full of surprises. When we were growing up, he was often sullen, surprisingly clever, and extremely literal. As he aged, he became more withdrawn to everyone, including Jace and I. I hadn't seen this side of him in a long time.

Somehow, it made me feel better. Like if he could open up again, then I could handle this mess. We were Lightwoods, after all. Specially trained agents taught to kick butt and take names. And we excelled at our job.

"I can handle it." I said aloud with renewed confidence. My words placated him, but I could tell he wanted to know what was really going on. I was going to tell him. I really was.

He bobbed his head up and down in a nod, some of his dark hair falling in his face to cover those Lightwood blue eyes of which I had always been a tad bit jealous. "Okay." He agreed, getting to his feet. "Just one more question."

Pushing myself up on my elbows, I gave him a questioning glance.

"What, exactly, were doing in my room at five o'clock in the morning in the first place?"

I laughed. "That depends. Where, exactly, were you the whole night?" He shuffled from foot to foot uncomfortably. "You were with Magnus, weren't you?" I asked.

His guilty look gave him away.

"Don't worry," I whispered conspiratorially. "I won't tell anyone."

"_Isabelle_." He groaned.

"Fine, fine." I grinned. "I couldn't sleep, so I came looking for you. I must have fallen asleep waiting."

"Next time," he said, rolling his eyes. "Just call me."

I stuck my tongue out at him. Childish, but effective.

An hour, three changes of clothes, a little makeup, and a crapton of effort later, I was ready. For what, you ask? To _finally_ talk to Simon. My heart to heart with Alec—and Simon's obtuse actions the day before—had given me the resolve to go through with this. Fortunately for me, I knew exactly where he was.

Band practice.

"Whoa, your smile is blinding, Izzy." That was the first greeting I received upon entering Eric's garage, sarcasm courtesy of Jace.

"What was that?" I called. "Couldn't hear you over the music."

Okay, I wasn't exactly grinning, but I wasn't scowling either.

I knew I looked good in my black front-zip dress with a tight bodice and thin straps. The skirt portion was simple but elegant and hit me right above the knees. I couldn't remember where I had gotten it from, but I thought it was a Neiman Marcus design. Then again, it could just as easily have been from a local department store.

He gave me an unimpressed look. "There's no music playing, Izzy."

"Stab me now," I muttered jokingly, rolling my eyes. "What are you even doing here?"

In one corner of the garage, the boy I recognized as Eric was banging on his drums with no particular rhythm while beside him, a scrawny blonde was holding a microphone and wailing something atrocious. I think he might have been trying to sing.

Ignoring my question, Jace gave me one of his trademark bored looks. "Why would I want to stab you when there are plenty of demons around that would do just as well?" He had to shout to be heard.

I glanced around to make sure none of the mundanes present had heard his words.

"Shut up Jace." His girlfriend chided just as loudly, shoving at him playfully. Turning to me, she added, "I almost stabbed him yesterday, you know?"

"Hard to believe, I know." Jace agreed. I couldn't tell whether or not he was being sarcastic, but I did notice he was fiddling absentmindedly with a dagger.

I gave the two of them a skeptical look.

"What?" Clary asked defensively. "He came up behind me with a knife."

Giving the dagger in Jace's hand a pointed glance, I lifted my dubious eyes to Clary. "It's Jace," I pointed out. "He _always_ has a knife."

The music cut off with a final wail and Simon caught sight of me suddenly.

"Isabelle!" He grinned, rushing over to me, bass in hand. Today he was outfitted in one of his word tees that said 'One Man Wolf Pack' in bold, block-print letters.

Irony, thy name is Simon Lewis.

Honestly, my first instinct was to start shouting at him then and there. I was still mad at him—furious, actually. He had lied to me. _Twice. _But I was going to save the yelling until _after _everyone left. Because, thinking it over, I realized that this was a conversation best conducted in private. Especially because of the whole baby factor...

So, instead of shouting, I pasted a smile on my face. "How are the members of Dangerous Stain today?" I asked.

"Actually," the singer, who had a vaguely stoned look about him, spoke up, "We're The Brooklyn Apocalypse now."

"Fitting," I said dryly.

"Yeah," Simon agreed, missing my sarcasm. "I wasn't expecting to see you here. We're almost done now."

"That's fine." I assured him. I didn't come to hear their music anyway. I opened my mouth to tell him that we still needed to talk, but the guitarist suddenly struck up a tuneless song.

Jace shouted over the dreadful noise. "Your guitarist over there" –"Matt," Clary supplied— "has Van Gogh's ear for music."

"Who's Vango?" I demanded. First, he interrupted me and now he wanted to talk about someone I'd never even heard of. Typical Jace.

"No, it's _Van_ _Gogh_." Jace corrected superciliously. "Looks like Alec's not the only one who didn't pay attention in history.'

"Hey at least I didn't fall asleep and drool on my desk." I told him archly. Alec wasn't exactly here to defend himself, but Jace knew exactly what I was talking about. "So what did this Vango guy do again?"

Jace shrugged unconcernedly. "He cut off his own ear."

Simon looked from Matt to Jace and back again. "I don't think he's quite that bad." He said defensively.

"Well, I do." I spoke up.

Realizing he was outnumbered, Simon went back to his band mates. They gathered around Eric, who was apparently the leader of the operation, if not the brains. "Last song," he called.

They took their places: Simon on the left, Matt on the right, and Eric at the back with his drums. Standing in front of the whole group was the stoned looking singer who had been wailing away earlier. "My name is Kirk," Stoned boy said with a lecherous grin and a wink in my direction. "And this one is for all our female fans out there."

"Yeah, all two of them," Clary muttered to me.

"Hey, don't include me." I whispered to her.

The music started up again and I barely caught her whispered, "I wasn't."

Across the garage, Kirk continued like we were still paying attention. "This last song is called 'Do Me, Baby.'" Another of Eric's songs, I assumed. As per his usual style, both the lyrics and the title were utterly inappropriate.

It seemed like forever before the song was over and I could finally be alone with Simon. As the rest of the band was putting up equipment, I tugged at his arm. "Don't forget, Simon." I whispered. "We still need to talk."

He opened his mouth to say something undoubtedly sarcastic, but I just shook my head. "_Now_, Simon."

He nodded reluctantly. "We'll catch up with you later," he told Clary and Jace, shoeing them away so that we could have our long-overdue discussion.

"Come on," he whispered to me, taking my arm and leading me up the stairs in Eric's building until we were alone on the roof. It was mid-afternoon and the city was as busy as ever. From here, I could make out tiny spots moving frantically, people hurrying to or from work, or to some other unknown place.

I felt a reluctant smile appear on my face. Simon knew me a little too well. The roof was where I always came when I had something on my mind, some nagging thought or problem that wouldn't leave me alone. Something about the view made me feel safe and protected. The pure size of the city below me reminded me that I wasn't the only one facing problems. And if these innocent little mundies could muddle through, then so could I.

"So…" Simon began, his face a mix of discomfort and confusion. "You said we needed to talk?"

One look at him told me he wasn't ready for this.

_He needs to know,_ one side of me argued. _He's the freaking father!_

_No, he doesn't_, the other insisted.

_Just tell him. It's not hard. One sentence. A few words._

_And ruin his life?_

_Well, he already ruined mine._

Great. On top of everything else, I had somehow progressed to arguing with myself. I really was going crazy.

"Iz? Isabelle? Hello, earth to Izzy…" Simon waved a hand in front of my unseeing eyes.

My previous thoughts evaporated as I realized that he'd probably been doing this for a few minutes now. I had been so distracted that I hadn't even noticed.

He peered worriedly at me, but I brushed off his concern. "I'm fine, Simon. I promise."

"You sure?" He prodded. "No questionable substances or strange cocktails last time you were at the club?"

I snorted. "Of course not. That was you."

He started to laugh and then seemed to think better of it, his expression sobering instantly. "What is it, Isabelle?" He asked suddenly. "What do you want?"

I tried to shrug it off. "Peace on earth… a new pair of boots…" I could tell by his expression that my efforts fell flat.

"You know what I mean." He fixed me with a glare. "Now tell me what this is all about."

"Well, you see..." I started to take a deep breath to steady myself, but the words were already tumbling from my lips.

"I'm pregnant."

**Magnus**

Alec's lips met mine with a fervor that surprised even me. He was in a feisty mood today, his mouth pressing harder than normal, his teeth nipping at my skin. His eyebrows pressed together in concentration as he worked his mouth over my body.

His fingers worked in tandem with his lips. Their movements held his typical Shadowhunter grace but were also a little jerky because of his rush. One hand slid down a little farther, sliding against the waist band of my pants.

"Get undressed." I whispered softly in his ear. "This all works better if you're naked."

His only answer was an impatient eye roll and a tug of the fabric. I felt the denim rend as his muscles flexed. If it was anyone else but my scrumptious Shadowhunter, I would have been pissed.

"Hey, hey," I laughed, moving his fingers away from the torn fabric. "It's got a zipper, you know." Well, not anymore.

Alec gave me an impatient look. "Come on Magnus," he urged. I could see the need in his eyes, raw and unadulterated. "Just take your pants off."

"Do I look that easy?" I teased, kissing him softly on the lips.

I couldn't mistake the sudden burst of humor in his eyes. "Yes," he answered, his lips so so soft against mine. I tried to look offended, but I just couldn't manage it. Where Alec was concerned, I was more than easy. I was just plain vulnerable. This nineteen year old boy was my one weakness and he knew it.

"Now kiss me," he ordered. "Before I leave."

He wouldn't, I knew. Not now. I could feel the evidence of his desire pressing against me. He was in no state to go anywhere, but that didn't stop him from teasing me.

"Have I told you lately that I love you?" I asked, nuzzling his neck.

"Yeah," I could feel him smile against me. "But it's always nice to hear it again."

I lowered my mouth until I could feel his breath, hot and heady, on me as he exhaled. He breathed my name. It was a whisper. A moan. It was one of the most exciting sounds I had ever heard.

Just as I was about to kiss the living daylights out of him, the doorbell rang.

I muttered a curse that Alexander, at the tender age of eighteen, had probably never even heard. I got to my feet automatically and headed toward the door. I paused in the entryway with one last glance at my sexy Nephilim. He was lying sprawled across my bed, the buttons on his pants undone and his shirt discarded on the floor. He was beautiful. All the marks and scars only made him more so.

Whoever was at the door now had better be prepared for a scorching admonishment. And maybe a nice pig tail to decorate their derriere for the trouble.

"Magnus!" He called rushing after me to stop me in my efforts to greet our visitor. I gave him a searching look, expecting another soul-searing kiss.

I was sorely disappointed. Instead of kissing me like I was his last breath, Alec simply motioned to my pants. "Thought you might want to, um, fix them." He said delicately.

A muttered spell remedied the problem quite easily. It did little, however, to stifle my desire for the boy. But that was a matter for later.

Opening the door, I caught sight of a woman. She was young and lovely. Beautiful, even, I'd venture to say. Her hair was long, a shimmering silver, her skin as pale as the snow in winter. It was soft, I knew from experience. Soft, flawless, and utterly cold.

"Camille." I said.

"Magnus." She returned.

"Alec." Alexander inserted sarcastically.

Because I believed his outburst was caused by Camille's interruption of our rendezvous, I chose not to chide him for bad manners. "What a wonderful surprise." I said in a cheerful voice. Must have been a bit too cheerful because neither one looked as if they were fooled.

"Surprise, Magnus?" Camille said softly. "I thought I had an appointment." She pressed forward, her white skin spilling over the bodice of her indecently cut dress. At one time the sight would have tempted me beyond reason. Now, it only made me wary.

I shifted backwards, more for Alec's sake than my own, and glanced back to see how he was taking this. I hadn't told him that I'd once been into women, but this was going to be an extremely awkward way to introduce the topic.

He was a little preoccupied though. "Camille…" He murmured thoughtfully. "Camille Belcourt?"

"The very same." Camille said, her tone a mite dismissive. "Magnus, dear, if we could continue our conversation in a more…" she frowned distastefully at Alec in his ratty jeans and dark sweater, "private venue, I would greatly appreciate it."

Alec's blue eyes were practically iridescent at times. Sometimes I felt as though if I looked long enough, I could see into his soul. Now, they were closed off. Not exactly cold, but definitely hurt. There were many things about my past that I refused to share with him, but never before had I excluded him from my present.

"Alec..."

He didn't know—couldn't know—that the only reason he shouldn't be here was that Camille was so much a part of the very same past of which I refused to tell him.

"Of course," Alec nodded a little too enthusiastically. "Sorry. I'll go."

I knew that I should have told him to stay, that there was nothing we couldn't share, but I let him go. The same instinct that caused secrecy to be second nature in the past told me that it was better for him not to know.

And yet, as I watched his figure recede into my bedroom, I couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that I was making a serious mistake.

Camille was examining the room thoughtfully, seemingly unaware of Alec's feelings and my own. But I caught the smug tilt of her mouth as he disappeared through the door. She knew exactly what she was doing, and she was going to enjoy every second of it.

"Now," she sat down on the couch with an elegant smile. "Where were we?"

**Isabelle**

Simon went so still I thought he was dead.

"Simon?" I peered nervously at his dilated pupils, searching for signs of life. "_Simon?" _I poked him in the side for good measure.

He shuttered back to life with an expression of pure shock. "Excuse me?" He spluttered. "Could you repeat that? I think I heard you wrong."

"Um, no. I'm pretty sure you heard me right." My voice was quivering. The sign of weakness made me grit my teeth. Yeah, okay, so I needed him. That didn't mean I had to be happy about it. "In approximately seven and a half months, I'm going to have a baby."

"You're joking." He accused.

I wish.

**Haha! I told you that she'd tell him in this chapter, not that you'd get the whole conversation. ;)  
><strong>

**Now review! (please) Ideas and opinions are always welcome.  
><strong>


End file.
